On February 24, 2021, the Supreme Court had dismissed a petition filed by UPSC aspirants, who had exhausted their last chance in 2020 but couldn't write the exam, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. A few days ago, the same petitioners who had appeared for the exam in 2020 and had exhausted their last chance have filed an intervention application. The applicants have now prayed to present the application.
They say that they couldn't prepare well for the exams owing to the pandemic. A few of these petitioners include doctors, who say that they were active in COVID duty.
The petition says that if an extra chance is allowed to the people who exhausted their last attempt, it will be beneficial to over 10,000 people across the country. "The application seeking intervention is filed by the applicants who were also equally affected by the above notification as well (nationwide lockdown) as COVID pandemic situation generally and also due to their own peculiar situations," reads the petition. "The Applicants submit that denial of an additional attempt to the Applicants will make them suffer serious discrimination qua other candidates who may not have faced similar hurdles as the Applicants in their preparation, " read the petition.
"A lot of us didn't have access to our study materials. So many of us had just recovered from COVID and there were doctors who served during the pandemic. We deserve a fair chance," said a petitioner on condition of anonymity. The UPSC examinations are supposed to be held in October.
