New Delhi: Five civil service aspirants who had cleared the UPSC main examination but were disqualified for not presenting their degree certificates by the cut-off date were permitted to appear for interviews by the Supreme Court on Friday in a special case.
A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna ruled that the applicants be permitted to take the interviews as a special case, as it noted that their universities released their results late, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Supreme Court, these five applicants will be added to the already released list of candidates who have been short-listed for interviews.
It noted that earlier the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had previously permitted some applicants who had passed preliminary tests to sit for the main examinations despite the fact that they had not presented the qualifying examination certificates with their application form.
The bench stated that it would be inequitable to deny these five applicants the chance to continue with the UPSC examination since they were placed in a unique circumstance as a result of the pandemic, in which their universities were unable to release the examination results on time.
The Supreme Court said that it is issuing the ruling in accordance with Article 142 of the Constitution and is recognizing the case as a unique one.
The petitioner’s lawyer, Advocate Tanya ShreeTanya Shree informed the SC that they were permitted to compete in UPSC preliminary tests on October 4, 2020, by furnishing an undertaking after their respective universities failed to declare results of the final examination due to COVID-19. According to the results announced on October 23, 2020, they passed the preliminary examination.
She went on to say that, according to the guidelines, applicants who pass the preliminary exams must fill out a thorough application form and show documentation of passing the qualifying exam in order to sit for the mains.
The deadline for submitting proof was November 23, 2020, but after their university results were not released, they were allowed to sit for the main examination in January after providing an undertaking, according to the petitioners, who added that their university results were released later and they were declared pass.
The petitioners further said that UPSC had later rejected their candidature due to their failure to provide proof of qualifying examination within the cut-off date, which resulted in the withholding of the main examination results.
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The UPSC claims that, according to the commission’s regulations, candidates must show proof of qualifying examination while submitting the detailed examination form, which many students did while others did not.
Candidates have stated in their plea that cancellation of their candidature is arbitrary, unreasonable and discriminatory amongst the candidates for the UPSC.
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