UPSC to publish provisional key after civil services prelims, Supreme Court told

New Delhi: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has told the Supreme Court that it has decided to publish provisional answer key after the preliminary test in Civil Services Examinations and finalise it only after inviting objections and representations from the candidates and subjecting them to a team of subject experts.

In an affidavit, the constitutional body said, "Such finalised answer key by the team of subject/discipline experts shall constitute the basis of the declaration of the results of preliminary examination. The final answer key shall be published after declaration of the final results."

The UPSC said it has taken a conscious and well considered decision in this regard and desired to start following the modalities as expeditiously as possible.

"The decision taken by the UPSC is considered to be an effective and adequate redressal of the grievances raised in the petition and to enhance the level of transparency in its functioning and further the cause of the public interest," the response said.

In its decision, the UPSC said, it would publish the provisional answer key, after the preliminary examination is conducted.

"Representations/objections will be sought from the candidates who appeared in the examination. Each such representation/objection should be supported by three authoritative sources. Objections which are not so supported should be rejected at the threshold. However, the Commission will decide whether the sources produced are authoritative or not," it said.

The provisional answer key and objections/representations received from candidates on question paper as well as answer keys would be placed before set/team of experts of the concerned discipline/subject, who would undertake an in-depth consideration of all the aspects and will finalise the answer keys, it added.

The UPSC's response came in a writ petition filed by Himanshu Kumar and others in 2024. The court had earlier appointed senior advocate Jaydeep Gupta as amicus curiae in the matter.