Supreme Court Rejects Plea For UPSC Prelims 2023 Answer Key Publication

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed as withdrawn a plea challenging the decision of the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) to publish the answer key of the Prelims of Civil Services Examination 2023 only after the declaration of the final result.

A bench comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol permitted the taking back of the plea and dismissed it as withdrawn given the pendency of a similar plea before the Delhi High Court.

On August 2, the High Court reserved its judgement on the maintainability of a similar plea filed by 17 civil service aspirants. The plea, which sought direction for the UPSC to publish the answer key with immediate effect, said that the decision not to make the answer key available to the candidates is "arbitrary".

The High Court had called UPSC to file its preliminary objections to the plea. It recorded the statement that the other two prayers in the petition -- challenging the preliminary examination and to re-conduct the exam -- are not being pressed in the matter by the petitioners.

A press note issued by the UPSC on June 12 said that "candidates are also informed that marks, cut off marks and answer keys of CS (P) Examination, 2023 will be uploaded only after the entire process of the Civil Services Examination 2023 is over, that is, after the declaration of the final result".