The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing on a plea filed by a bunch of UPSC aspirants, seeking an extra attempt in the civil services examination for the year 2021, as a one time measure owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Also read: UPSC aspirants’ plea to allow extra attempt in civil service exam

The exam was conducted on October 4, Sunday, after the top court declined to postpone the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar, asked advocate Atul Agarwal, counsel appearing for the petitioners, to serve a copy of the petition to the counsel of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The plea, filed by 24 UPSC aspirants, submitted that an extra attempt is pertinent because their preparation has been severely disrupted on account of the COVID-19 situation and also because they will become age-barred next year.

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Some candidates giving their last attempt and facing age bar disqualification to appear next year had urged the court to be allowed to get relaxation on this rule if they were unable to appear due to Covid. The court asked the Centre to take a decision on whether this was possible and expected the concerned department to take a call expeditiously.

Hundreds of candidates appeared for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on October 4.

The apex court on September 30 declined to postpone the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination.

A Bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar asked the Centre to consider granting one more chance to those aspirants who may not appear in their last attempt for the exam due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plea, filed by 24 UPSC aspirants, submitted that an extra attempt is pertinent because their preparation has been severely disrupted on account of the COVID-19 situation and also because they will become age-barred next year. 

Mean-while, The downward trend in India’s coronavirus cases continues as 55,342 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours taking the country’s Covid tally past 71.75 lakh, shows data shared by the Health Ministry this morning. This is the first time since August 18 (55,079) that India has reported around 55,000 cases in a day, and second day when the total new infections were under 70,000 since the September surge of around 90,000 cases a day. With 77,760 new recoveries, active cases have further come down to 8.38 lakh. The total number of fatalities associated with the viral infection shot to 1,09,856 with 706 people succumbing to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.
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