Civil Service Aspirants' Plea For Extra Chance In UPSC Mains Due To COVID : 'DoPT Will Have To Decide', Centre Tells Supreme Court

The matter was listed before the bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and AS Oka.

The petition was preferred by UPSC aspirants who had cleared UPSC-2021 Prelims Examination and were entitled to appear in the UPSC Mains Examination was scheduled from 7th January to 16th January 2022.

What Transpired In Supreme Court Today?

When the matter was called for hearing, Advocate Naresh Kaushik for UPSC submitted that UPSC would file its affidavit today.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan for the petitioners submitted that UPSC had been given time to file the reply but the reply hasn't been filed yet.

Representing the Union, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati at this juncture while informing the bench that the results had already been announced submitted that there was no serious urgency.

Raising strong objections for UPSC publishing the results, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted that UPSC had earlier sought time to file its response but in between published the results thereby frustrating the right of the aspirants.

"UPSC will only have to make a statement as to whether one opportunity can be granted or not. Last time they said it is a complex issue," the bench remarked on ASG Bhati's submission that it wont be possible to file an affidavit till Friday.

Responding to the remarks posed by the bench, ASG said,"Extra attempt call will have to be taken by DoPT."

The bench at this juncture, while adjourning the matter for Friday said, "You try till Friday if it is possible, otherwise we'll see what it is to be done."

When the ASG submitted that the Court had earlier turned down the plea for extra chance in UPSC exams, the petitioners' counsel replied that the issue of extra-chance in Mains is coming before the Court for the first time.

Details Of The Plea

It was stated in the petition filed through Advocate on Record Shashank Singh that petitioner 1 and 2 had to leave the exam in-between, after appearing in initial two papers whereas Petitioner No 3 could not appear for any of the papers of the same exam, after getting infected with COVID-19.

The petitioners argued that absence of any kind of policy of UPSC which could provide arrangements for CoVID positive aspirants during the span of mains examination or before it was violative of Article 14 and 16 of Constitution of India, 1950.

In this regards, petitioners in the alternate had also sought relief for making some arrangements to enable the petitioner to appear in the rest of papers which they could not do before the publication of the result of Civil Service Mains Examination 2021.

It is pertinent to mention that the Top Court in July 2021 had refused to pass directions to the Central Government and the Union Public Service Commission to grant one-time age-relaxation to those candidates who could not appear in the 2020 examination due to COVID-related difficulties and restrictions.

Case Title: Arjit Shukla and Others v Union of India | WP(C) 92/2022

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