Civil Services Examination 2023: Delhi High Court Reserves Judgment On Maintainability Of Plea Seeking Publishing Of Prelims Answer Key

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on the maintainability of a plea challenging the decision of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to publish the answer key of the preliminary examination of Civil Services Examination 2023 only after declaration of final result.

“I will pass judgment on the maintainability,” said Justice Chandra Dhari Singh while reserving the verdict in a plea moved by various civil services aspirants.

The court also recorded the submission of the aspirants’ counsel that the other two prayers in the petition, i.e. challenging the preliminary examination and to re-conduct the exam, are not being pressed in the matter.

Justice Singh also granted time to the counsel to file written submissions on the aspect of maintainability of the petition.

The plea filed through Advocate Rajeev Kumar Dubey has been moved by 17 civil services aspirants. They have challenged the press note released by the UPSC on June 12. In the press note related to the declaration of the results, the UPSC also said the answer key of prelims will be published only after the entire process is over.  

It was submitted on behalf of the aspirants that the impugned press note has been challenged on the ground that the UPSC is not making available the answer key to the candidates.

The plea thus calls the decision arbitrary and seeks a direction for UPSC to publish the answer key with immediate effect.

On the other hand, the UPSC has raised a preliminary objection on the maintainability of the petition by contending that the impugned press note is also a part of the recruitment and thus, the High Court does not have the jurisdiction to entertain the petition.

It was further submitted that the aspirants have the original remedy of approaching Central Administrative Tribunal.

“Not providing to the students, the answer key of an exam they have appeared for, not considering the representations of the candidates despite a particular time window being provided for the same, and, asking questions, which are disproportionately vague, testing candidates' ability to answer only on the basis of guesswork, is not only arbitrary but defies all principles of fairness, logic and rationality,” the plea reads.

Recently, the court dismissed an application moved in the plea by the aspirants challenging the Detailed Application Form (DAF) issued by UPSC on July 10 inviting applications for Civil Services (Main) Examination 2023.

Title: Himanshu Kumar v. UPSC & Anr.