India’s Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has told the country’s Supreme Court that granting an extra attempt for candidates in its main Public Service examination would have a “cascading effect” on the schedules of other examinations.
In its submission before the Justices, the UPSC said accommodating such requests would lead to a chaotic situation where no examination could be completed on schedule.
The UPSC is opposing a plea from exam candidates who said their last attempts to take the examination were either disrupted or completely cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The existing age range for admission to the examination is 21 to 32 years with up to six tries allowed. Most of the exam candidates supporting the petition are now either outside the maximum age or have exhausted their number of attempts.
“It is imperative the Commission follows its schedules of examinations which are prepared well in advance in order to perform its constitutional obligations to supply manpower to the Government in a timely manner to fill the vacancies in the crucial positions,” the UPSC submission stated.
“If the Commission is to make a provision for re-examination, it will hardly be possible for it to complete any examination on time.”
It said this would “entail complete derailment of the schedule of post-examination activities of a particular examination, but will also have cascading effects on the schedules of other ongoing examinations as well as other exams to follow”.
“In fact, accommodating such requests will lead to a chaotic situation where no examination can be completed on schedule, as a result of which vacancies in Government will remain unfilled for an indefinite period,” the submission said.
“The aspirants of the Commission’s examinations will also remain in limbo as to when the results will be declared or when the next advertisement for recruitment will be issued.”
New Delhi, 26 March 2022
