COVID19: Centre sticks to its stand against extra chance for civil services aspirants
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 9
The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was against giving an extra chance to civil services aspirants who exhausted their last attempt last year during Covid-19 pandemic.
“Either we dismiss all the petitions or we give an order. We cannot be midway,” a Bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said while reserving its order on petitions filed by civil services aspirants — who exhausted their last chance during COVID19 pandemic — seeking an extra chance.
The Centre had on February 5 agreed to give an extra chance as a one-time concession to those civil service aspirants, who had appeared in their last attempt in the 2020 but weren’t age-barred.
On Monday, the top court had asked the Centre to consider extending the benefit of extra chance being given to civil services aspirants who exhausted their last attempt last year during COVID19 pandemic to age-barred candidates as well.
“We don’t expect you to be rigid on this aspect. There were extraordinary circumstances,” it had told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju.
On Tuesday, Raju said initially the government was not willing to concede an extra chance and it was later done at the suggestion of the Bench. “This is not the exam where you prepare at the last minute. People prepare for years together…My first offer remains,” Raju told the Bench.
Senior counsel Shyam Divan, representing the petitioner candidates, maintained that extra chance and age bar relaxation were inter-twined and such last chance candidates should be treated as a “homogenous class”. He pointed out that such relaxation had been given in the past as well.
Earlier, the Centre had on February 1 reiterated its stand against granting an extra chance to the civil services aspirants who could not appear or prepare well for their last attempt in the 2020 UPSC exam due to COVID19.
The top court had said if such relaxation was granted in the past, why the government can’t do it one more time. The one-time relaxation will benefit over 3,300 students without even increasing the age-limit, it said.
The Centre had initially opposed the idea, saying allowing an extra attempt to civil services aspirants who could not appear in their last chance in the 2020 examination due to the COVID19 situation would create a “cascading effect”, detrimental to the overall functioning and level playing field necessary for a public examination system.
