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[BREAKING] UPSC Civil Services: Delhi High Court Dismisses Plea To Postpone Mains Exam Amid Rising Covid-19 Cases
Nupur Thapliyal
6 Jan 2022 4:08 PM IST
![[BREAKING] UPSC Civil Services: Delhi High Court Dismisses Plea To Postpone Mains Exam Amid Rising Covid-19 Cases](https://www.livelaw.in/h-upload/2021/11/15/750x450_404079-upsc-civil-service-examination-and-delhi-hc.jpg "[BREAKING] UPSC Civil Services: Delhi High Court Dismisses Plea To Postpone Mains Exam Amid Rising Covid-19 Cases")
The Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea 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.Justice V Kameswar Rao said,"I find, the press release do indicate that the UPSC is conscious of the prevailing situation and the safety and convenience of the...
The Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea 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.
Justice V Kameswar Rao said,
"I find, the press release do indicate that the UPSC is conscious of the prevailing situation and the safety and convenience of the candidates. Preparations for such an important exam are made well in advance maintaining confidentiality and secrecy in respect of answer sheets and question papers and all preparations being in place, it shall not be in public interest to interdict the process. The apprehension of 19 petitioners cannot outweigh the interest of thousands of other candidates, (apart from public interest), who have toiled themselves to prepare themselves for the examination."
Going through the averments made in the petition, the Court was of the view that they were general in nature without any specific details.
"In any case, the above concerns of the petitioners have been answered by Mr. Kaushik by referring to the press release of the UPSC issued on January 05, 2022," the Court added.
The development comes in a petition filed by candidates who have cleared their UPSC Civil Services Examination 2021 (Preliminary Examination), seeking postponement of the Mains Examination in light of prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country.
It was 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.
UPSC's Stand
Advocate Naresh Kaushik, appearing for UPSC, informed the Bench that they have made preparations for the exam on war footing and the authority is taking all steps with the aid and assistance of district authorities to ensure public interest is safeguarded.
There are 24 examination centres and 82 sub-centres. Further, supervisors, in addition to examiners, head examiners and other staff are physically present at the centres, he submitted.
He submitted that last year, the Supreme Court had refused to postpone the UPSC Preliminary examination, which is more difficult to be conducted as compared to the Mains exam, given the number of candidates.
Kaushik further informed the Bench that out of 9,156 candidates who have qualified for Mains Examination, 9,100 candidates have already downloaded their admit cards. "Kindly consider the factor of larger public interest. The admit cards are being downloaded until now. They would have their hard work for preparing for exam," he said, adding that serious candidates must have already reached to the cities of their specified exam centres.
He stated that like last year, this year also candidates were given the option to change their examination centre. Further, he claimed that UPSC had received representations against conducting of ecam from only 61 candidates, those are the ones who have not downloaded their admit cards.
It was further submitted that civil services exam deals with critical areas of workforce of government. "How the pandemic otherwise would be managed? Taking all aspects into account, UPSC has taken conscious decision to go ahead with exam. In future, more constraints may be developed."
Submissions for Petitioners
"There is a fundamental right to be safe. This exam is the test of mind and not of survival. It's not the case of survival of the fittest," Advocate Anushree Kapadia, appearing for the Petitioners, submitted.
She submitted that a potentially infected candidate will be a threat to others, including the petitioners and their families and to everyone else who comes in contact with them.
Kapadia argued, "There is no SOP for prevention of COVID at the centres. If one candidate contracts Covid, it will be risky for others. Candidates will be traveling from their home towns to metro cities...The candidates need to survive this to be appointed. It is a very short sighted thing to say that because appointments are to be made, Covid can be subsided."
On the SOP, Kapdia added, "The press release says persons from containment and micro containment zones are also allowed. This is also a threat. Such persons will now be allowed to come to give exam."
She further submitted that there are many sealed and containment zones and candidates residing there may miss out the exam.
"I received a call from a candidate from Mumbai saying his building is sealed due to COVID. Irrespective of the fact that he has or not has COVID, he will be unable to go for exam without any fault of his actions," Kapadia informed the Bench, adding that schools and colleges are shut in all States; in Tamil Nadu even transportation is shut, despite UPSC circular.
She pointed out that the Central Government has itself reduced the number of employees coming to its offices physically, exemption is given to PwDs and pregnant women.
On the option to change exam centre, Kapadia stated that the same happened in mid-December 2021, when there was no apprehension of another Covid-19 wave.
Arguments by Centre
Apoorv Kurup appearing for the Central Government submitted that the entire petition is based on assumptions. and there is no pleading that someone has something or has been clinically diagnosed.
"The Supreme Court order, theme of that is, petitioner has to come with specific cases. Assumptions will be no ground for relief by the Court. Likelihoods have been rejected by the Supreme Court," he submitted.
Read full updates from hearing here.
"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 stated.
The plea averred 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 added.
Accordingly, the plea stated 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 was also 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 stated.
Case Title: Rajat Jain and Ors. v. UPSC & Anr.
Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 8
