New Delhi, February 28
Three Civil Services aspirants—who couldn’t write the UPSC 2021 Mains Examination held between January 7 and 16 due to Covid-19 infection – have moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Union Public Service Commission for an extra chance.
A Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar on Monday agreed to take up their plea on March 7 after senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioners, said the petitioners could have lied, but they have come to the court with clean hands.
It also asked the petitioners to give an advance copy of the petition to the UPSC counsel.
Petitioners Arjit Shukla and other candidates had cleared the UPSC 2021 Prelims Examination but could not appear in many of the papers of the Mains Examination held last month after testing Covid-19 positive.
They have sought a direction to the UPSC to give them an additional attempt to appear in the Civil Services Exam or allow them to appear in the papers they could not write, before the publication of final results. One of them could not appear in any of the papers due to Covid-19 infection.
The petitioners – who submitted their RTPCR test reports – submitted that they couldn’t write the UPSC Mains Examination due to the restrictions imposed under the strict quarantine guidelines for Covid-19.
Contending that the UPSC didn’t have any policy regarding making alternative arrangements for such Covid-19 positive candidates for Mains Examination, they said it violated their rights.
