Supreme Court Grants 2 Weeks Time To UPSC To Respond To Civil Service Aspirants' Plea For Extra Chance In Mains Exam

The Supreme Court on Monday granted two weeks time to the Union Public Service Commission(UPSC) to respond to a petition by three civil services aspirants, who missed out the papers of the Union Public Service Commission's (UPSC) Civil Services Main Examination due to COVID-19 seeking additional attempt to appear in the exam.

The bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar while deferring the matter for March 21, 2022 in their order said,  "As requested by Mr Kaushik for UPSC, defer till March 21. Affidavit be filed by the parties before the next date."

What Transpired In The Supreme Court Today? 

When the matter was called for hearing, Advocate Naresh Kaushik for UPSC sought 2 weeks time to take instructions with regards to the same. 

"This is an issue which is very complicated. Give me 2 weeks to take instructions on the same. This is done as per the rules. Union is also there."

Appearing for the petitioner's Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan pointed out that interviews are scheduled to take place in April and sought for a shorter time, "Only the time. If they can respond within 10 days or a lesser spell, so that there could be some accommodation for the petitioners in the interview. Some petitioners have missed 2 exams and other have missed all the 7 exams."

Acceding to the request by Counsel for UPSC, the bench accordingly while granting time to the parties to file affidavit in this regards, deferred the matter for March 21, 2022.

Details Of The Petition

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.

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 No. 1 to 3 could not give UPSC Mains Examination being Covid Positive and owing to the restrictions imposed under the strict quarantine guidelines of the Government," the petition stated.

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 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.

The bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna had given the candidates liberty to submit representations before concerned authorities seeking extra attempt and had urged that the authorities may take a lenient view on the plea for extra chance in the light of the COVID pandemic situation.

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

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