Chances are, the centre may let the UPSC aspirants who exhausted their last shot at the exam in 2020 could appear again, in 2021. This was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to the Supreme Court. The court was hearing a petition that sought the same, which will be next heard on January 11. The petition was signed by 59 aspirants.

"It is under active consideration of the Centre. We are not taking an adversarial stand", said Mehta. He added that a decision will be made in three to four weeks. The petition was heard by a bench consisting of justices AM Khanwilkar, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for the petitioners submitted that the court has previously directed the centre to consider granting another chance to the students, considering the pandemic and the lockdown. The petition also seeks another attempt for aspirants who could not write the exam in 2020.

Previously, two different petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking the same relief. While hearing a petition on September 30, the Justice A M Khanwilkar had expressed his sentiments for a compensatory attempt to all last attempters who will be unable to appear for the preliminary examination.