Kashish Jain
Supreme Court dismissed the petition filed seeking a second shot at the civil service examination due to the COVID-19 pandemic and age bar.
Many UPSC aspirants had cited difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent Lockdown as primary reasons for hampered preparation for the exam and thus sought an extra attempt. The petition in question sought relaxation for the aspirants who exhausted their last attempt.
A bench that comprised Justices AM Khanwilkar, Indu Malhotra, and Ajay Rastogi had reserved judgment on February 9.
While the Central Government had agreed to offer an extra chance to the aspirants who met the age criterion, the petitions wanted relaxation in the age bar as well.
The UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2021 notification is expected to be released soon. This notification was originally to be released on 10th February 2021 but was delayed.
On 8th February 2021, the Supreme Court had asked the Center to at least consider a ‘one-time relaxation’ in the age bar. Before that, on the 5th of this month, the Central Government agreed to give a chance to the aspirants who had not yet crossed the age limit but were not in favour to relax the limitation for those who had exhausted their last attempt due to Covid-19.
Needless to say, this judgment came as a source of disappointment and is a massive setback for a plethora of UPSC aspirants.
Read also: SC asks centre to consider one time age relaxation for UPSC extra chance