In a hearing in the Apex court, the center has agreed to give another chance to those CSE aspirants who had exhausted all their attempts they had to appear in the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) exam last year in October 2020. This decision has come as a big relief for the UPSC aspirants who have been eyeing the decision of this case. Earlier, an affidavit was filed by the center in the Supreme Court which opposed this.
The government counsel told the apex court that this relaxation will be given only to the extent of providing only one extra attempt for the CSE (Civil Services Examination) 2021. This is only limited to those candidates who had exhausted all their chances to appear in the exam in the year 2020.
Such candidates will be permitted to take the exam one more time, said the government, provided those candidates are not age bar. The Centre also told the court that this decision of relaxation should not be considered as a precedent as this is only applicable for CSE-2021.
It was also stated on the government’s part that those candidates who have more attempts or those who have been age barred now, will not be able to sit for the Civil Services Examination 2021.
As per the rules:
- Candidate from the general category can sit for 6 times up to the age limit of 32.
- Candidates from the OBC category can sit for 9 attempts till the age of 35.
- Candidates from SC/ST category can sit for the exam till the age of 37.
A petition was filed in the supreme court by the aspirants who were seeking an extra attempt for the CSE exam in the year 2021 owing to the hardships they faced in the previous year due to the global pandemic and due to the related reasons were not able to attempt/ perform well in the exam.
The Centre has now agreed to grant one more attempt in the year 2021.