Civil service exams: SC rejects plea for extra chance in view of Covid

THE SUPREME Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea by some civil service aspirants — who exhausted their last opportunity in the preliminary exams held in October 2020 — seeking an extra attempt in view of the difficulties posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Ajay Rastogi and Indu Malhotra also nixed a government proposal to provide an extra chance to those who took the October 2020 exam but have not crossed the age limit, noting that some of the petitioners themselves had contended that it is “discriminatory”.

The court said “it is advisable to avoid this situation and any relaxation which is not permissible either in attempt or age under the scheme of Rules 2020 apart from being in contravention to the rules, it may be discriminatory and it is advisable not to exercise discretion in implementing what is being proposed by the 1st respondent [Centre] in compliance of” an earlier order of the court.

The bench said “there are large number of candidates who appeared in various examinations in 2020 during Covid-19 pandemic and everyone must have faced some constraints/ impediments/ inconvenience in one way or the other…”.

Pointing out that the syllabus for the exams has not changed since 2015, the court said that it can take “a judicial notice that these petitioners have appeared in the same pattern of examination in the previous years since the year 2015 and what is being claimed and prayed for under the guise of Covid-19 pandemic is nothing but a lame excuse in taking additional attempt to participate in the Civil Service Examination 2021 to be held in future and we find no substance in either of the submissions which has been made before us”.