Supreme Court asks UPSC to give reasons for not postponing exam

The court has put the matter for consideration on September 30

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the UPSC to tell why the Civil Services (Preliminary) examinations, scheduled to be held on October 4, should not be postponed in view of the alarming rise of Covid-19 cases, besides flood and incessant rains in parts of the country.

A bench presided over by Justice A M Khanwilkar asked the UPSC to file an affidavit by Tuesday as a counsel, appearing for the constitutional body, submitted that it can't agree to the plea for deferment as it would turn the whole calendar go haywire.

The court asked the UPSC counsel to furnish the reasons for not postponing the examinations.

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It decided to put the matter for consideration on Wednesday.

On September 24, the court asked a counsel, appearing for 20 aspirants led by Vasireddy Govardhana Sai Prakash, to serve the copy of the petition with the UPSC counsel.

In their plea, the petitioners, represented by senior advocate V K Shukla and advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, asked the court to direct the UPSC to defer the examinations for two-three months to let the curve of rising cases flatten.

They claimed that if the examination was to be held on October 4, it would result in gross violation of the fundamental right to health and life. The biggest sufferers would be students from the middle and lower-middle class for being unable to arrange for transportation, accommodation and other expenses. They claimed states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have already cancelled their tests for public service commission.

About six lakh aspirants are likely to appear in the seven-hour offline examination, at centres in 72 cities, putting their lives at utmost risk and danger, in the wake of country recording rise of 78,000 Covid-19 cases per day, they said.

On February 12, the UPSC had issued the notification for the examination to be held on May 31.

However, due to nationwide lockdown and alarming spurt in Covid-19 cases, the UPSC on May 20 postponed the examination indefinitely. But, it published a revised calendar and took a decision in an "utterly arbitrary, unreasonable, and whimsical" manner to conduct the examination on October 4, the petitioners claimed.