The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), on March 7, told the Supreme Court that the petition where three aspirants are seeking another attempt at the UPSC Mains exam is "very complicated". The petitioners had cleared the 2021 prelims exam but could not appear for some of the papers in the Mains exam after testing positive for COVID-19.
The petitioners are also willing to settle for an alternative arrangement where they are allowed to write only the papers that they have missed instead of appearing for the entire exam. The counsel appearing for the UPSC told the apex court that he needs to take instructions and place on record all the aspects before any decision is taken on the issue.
"I think this is an issue which is very, very complicated. I need instructions and place on record all the aspects before your lordships before any decision is taken," the UPSC's counsel told the Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar. While seeking two weeks to take instructions in the matter, the UPSC counsel told the Bench that interviews are slated to start only in April.
The Bench posted the matter for hearing on March 21 and said that affidavits should be filed by the parties before the next date. While two of the three petitioners had to leave the Main exam, held from January 7 to January 16, after appearing for some initial papers, the third aspirant could not appear in any of the papers due to COVID.
The petitioners, in their plea filed through Advocate Shashank Singh, said that they tested positive for COVID-19 in the RTPCR test reports dated January 13, 14 and January 6. "There was the absence of any kind of policy of UPSC which could provide arrangements for such petitioners who were COVID positive during the span of mains examination or before it," the plea read. It said that the absence of policy and no arrangement to accommodate COVID-19 positive petitioners to appear in the civil service mains examination 2021 have violated their rights, including that of under Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution of India.
"The petitioners are approaching this court under Article 32 and seeking a direction to the Respondent/UPSC to extend them an additional (extra) attempt to appear in the examination or, in an alternate, make some arrangement to appear for the rest of papers which the petitioners could not give before the publication of the result of civil service mains examination 2021," the plea said.
