On Monday, the Supreme Court said that it will hear the plea filed by the UPSC aspirants who had missed their Civil Services exam due to Covid-19 and seeking an additional attempt, on March 21, 2022.
A bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar had adjourned the matter after UPSC counsel sought time to seek instructions on the matter.
UPSC aspirants had petitioned to extend the benefit of additional/extra attempts. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appeared for the petitioners, and the petition was filed by three UPSC aspirants through advocate Shashank Singh.
It was suggested that UPSC should make some arrangements for the petitioners to appear in the remaining papers which they could not give before the publication of the result of Civil service Mains Examination 2021.
The petitioners have mentioned that they have already cleared the UPSC Prelims exams 2021 and were entitled to appear for the UPSC Mains examination which was scheduled from January 7-16, 2022.
They stated that they were unable to appear for the UPSC Mains examination due to being Covid positive and owing to the restrictions imposed under strict quarantine guidelines of the government.
UPSC also did not have any policy which would have provided arrangements for petitioners who were Covid positive during or before the Mains examination.
“Absence of policy and no arrangement to accommodate Covid positive petitioners to appear in the Civil Service Mains examination 2021 have violated the right of the Petitioners under Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India,” the petitioner said.
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