UPSC CSE 2023: Tribunal issues notice to UPSC over CSAT cut-off reduction petition

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Service Examination (CSE) 2023 candidates have filed a petition with the Central Administrative Tribunal, seeking a reduction in the cut-off for Paper II Part II Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) from 33% to 23%. Today, on June 9, the Principal Bench of the Tribunal heard the plea and the Central Administrative Tribunal issued notice to the UPSC regarding the petition, as reported by LiveLaw.in.

To recap, the candidates claimed that the difficulty level of this year's CSAT paper, which was conducted on May 28, was comparable to the Common Admission Test (CAT) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). The filed petition argues that according to the syllabus of the UPSC CSE, CSAT is designed to assess candidates' basic abilities in Math, comprehension, reasoning and logical questions up to the level of Class X. However, the paper allegedly deviates from this syllabus, posing a challenge for candidates with only basic math knowledge.

The petition, as mentioned in the report by LiveLaw.in, states, “Going against the syllabus provided, UPSC has come up with a paper which cannot be cleared by anyone who possesses only basic knowledge of mathematic (Class X level) as the difficulty level of the questions is similar to that of questions asked in CAT examination and IIT JEE examination.” 

During today's hearing, the tribunal declined to direct the commission to suspend the preliminary result, as requested by the applicants, according to advocate Saaket Jain, who spoke with LiveLaw.in. The matter will be further considered and has now been scheduled for July 6.