Apex Court dismisses plea of UPSC aspirants seeking extra chance

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking an extra chance to appear in the UPSC civil services exam by aspirants who have exhausted their last attempt last year amid the 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.

A bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said that it is dismissing the plea filed by a civil services aspirant for an extra chance to the candidates who had exhausted their last attempt in the examination held in October 2020, citing difficulties faced in preparations due to the pandemic.

On February 9, the Centre had told the top court that it is against granting one-time relaxation on age limit to UPSC civil service aspirants, including those who had exhausted their last attempt in 2020 exam amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as it will be discriminatory to other candidates.

It had said that the candidates who gave their last attempt examination in October 2020 would get one more chance this year provided they are 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 AM Khanwilkar.