On Thursday, the Apex Court sought the response of the Centre & the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on a plea by 20 civil service aspirants to postpone the Oct 4 Civil Service (Preliminary) Examination amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
Citing the pandemic & natural calamities in some states, the petitioners from various parts of the country, led by Vasireddy Govardhana Sai Prakash, told the Supreme Court that holding the examination in the present circumstances would pose a risk to their health & safety.
Unlike academic examinations, there wouldn't be any question of loss of an academic year if the exam is not held, they said. That comes in the backdrop of the Joint Entrance Examination for admission to engineering schools & the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for medical & dental course aspirants taking place this month on grounds that students were at risk of losing an academic year.
The bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar & Justice Sanjeev Khanna issued notice to the UPSC & the Centre & posted the matter for hearing on Sept 28.
“About six lakh aspirants are likely to appear in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, which is a seven hours offline examination, to be given at limited centres in 72 cities across the country,” Lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava, appearing for the petitioners, told the Court.
“Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases are increasing in India at an alarming rate….Conducting the exam at such perilous time is nothing but putting lives of lakhs of young students (including petitioners) at utmost risk & danger of disease & death.”
In addition, the plea pointed out that candidates in several states were stuck because of floods & excessive rains. Since the exam is usually held during summers, this is a peculiar situation facing the candidates, the plea said.
The examination was earlier scheduled for May 31 but postponed on account of the pandemic. On June 5, the UPSC, the recruitment body for civil services, came out with a revised examination schedule, setting Oct 4 as the new date.
The petitioners alleged that holding the exam during a pandemic will amount to discrimination between states which are majorly affected by Coronavirus.
They argued that as per Regulation 12 of the Indian Administrative Service (Appointment by Competitive Exam) Regulations 1955, no candidate would be appointed to the service if not found to be in good mental or physical health after the exam. The risk of candidates getting infected is high & those who succeed in the examination may fail the fitness test in the event they contract the disease.
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