UPSC Civil Services: Delhi High Court To Hear Tomorrow Plea To Postpone Mains Exam Amid Rising Covid-19 Cases

A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking postponement of UPSC Civil Services Mains Examination, 2021 scheduled from January 7 to January 16, 2022, in view of Covid-19 third wave and spread of the new Omicron variant.

The matter was mentioned today by Advocate Anushree Kapadia before a Division Bench led by Chief Justice DN Patel, and permission is granted for urgent listing tomorrow.

The petition has been filed by candidates who have cleared their UPSC Civil Services Examination 2021 (Preliminary Examination) and now have to appear in the Mains Examination.

It is the case of the petitioner candidates that there is an imminent risk of them getting infected and also a risk of losing out their valuable attempt, which for some candidates is also a last attempt to appear in the examinations.

"Be that as it may, the candidates/petitioners have gone through all of it and were set to appear in the examinations. However, suddenly the Covid 19 Infection once again surfaced with its new variant Omicron and has spread exponentially in a very short period and likely to give rise to a third Covid 19 wave," the plea states.

The plea avers that the centers allotted for Mains Examination are mostly in the Metro Cities or State Capitals which are densely populated, facing an increase in the numbers of Covid 19 infections in an unprecedented manner.

"Further, there is no proper pre-examination testing. Temperature checks can be cheated by taking Paracetamol. If few candidates attempt examination with Covid than it might result in infecting all candidates as they have to spend 6 hours writing papers in same room. Further, once infected, candidates will be prohibited from writing subsequent papers as per UPSC policy. They also risk spreading to others including their families," the plea adds.

Accordingly, the plea states that the conduct of the UPSC CSE 2021 (Mains) Examination in the present schedule, is arbitrary and violative of fundamental and legal rights of the Petitioner candidates.

It has also been stated that the respondent authorities have not come out with any modality to prevent the risk of covid infection among the candidates at the time of giving the examinations.

"No restrictions or protocols in Examination Centers have been identified /notified as on date. The centers are same with same number of candidates in each of the center," the plea states.

Case Title: Rajat Jain and Ors. v. UPSC & Anr.