New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea seeking extra chance to appear in UPSC civil services exam by aspirants who exhausted their last attempt amid COVID-19 pandemic.
The bench was hearing a plea seeking grant of one more chance in the UPSC's civil services exam to those aspirants who could not appear in their last attempt in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The Centre had on February 5 told the Supreme Court that it is agreeable to give an extra chance as a one-time relaxation to UPSC civil service aspirants, who had appeared in their last attempt in the 2020 exam amid the COVID-19 pandemic and are otherwise not age-barred.
“Relaxation, only to the extent of providing one extra attempt for Civil Service Examination (CSE), specifically limited to CSE-2021, may be granted to only those candidates who appeared for CSE-2020 as their last permissible attempt and are otherwise not age-barred from appearing in CSE-2021,” the Centre told a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar.
On February 1, the Centre had told the top court that it cannot grant an extra chance to civil services aspirants who could not appear or prepare well for their last attempt in the UPSC civil service exam in 2020 due to the pandemic, while reiterating that it would amount to extending “differential treatment” to similarly placed candidates.
However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had on February 1 sought time to discuss the issue once again.
(With PTI inputs)
