COVID-19: UPSC aspirants move Supreme Court, seek extra attempt to appear in main exam

New Delhi: Three aspirants, who cleared the UPSC 2021 prelims exam but could not appear in all papers of the main exam held last month after testing positive for COVID-19, have approached the Supreme Court seeking an extra attempt to appear in the exams.

The petitioners have sought a direction to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to extend them an additional attempt to appear in the exam or in the alternate make some arrangement to appear in rest of the papers, which they could not give, before the publication of result.

Also read | Visva-Bharati students hold protest for reopening hostels, force suspension of classes

While two of the three petitioners had to leave the main exam, held from January 7 to 16, in-between after appearing in some initial papers, the third aspirant could not appear in any of the papers due to COVID. The plea came up for hearing on Monday before a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar.

The bench asked senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who was appearing for the petitioners, to serve the copy of the petition to the standing counsel for the concerned respondents. “Give advance copy. Let the other side come and respond,” the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on March 7.

Sankaranarayanan told the bench that the UPSC mains examination was held in the second week of January and out of the three petitioners, two of them had appeared in some papers before they were tested positive for COVID. He said the petitioners could have suppressed and lied, but they did not.

Also read | Haryana govt changes school timings for all classes from March 1

The petitioners, in their plea filed through advocate Shashank Singh, have said that they were tested positive for COVID-19 in the RTPCR test reports dated January 13, 14 and January 6. The plea said the petitioners could not give the UPSC mains examination after testing positive for COVID-19 and owing to the restrictions imposed under the strict quarantine guidelines of the government.

“Also, there was absence of any kind of policy of UPSC which could provide arrangements for such petitioners who were COVID positive during the span of mains examination or before it,” it said. “The petitioners are approaching this court under Article 32 and seeking a direction to the Respondent/ UPSC to extend them an additional (extra) attempt to appear in the examination or in alternate, make some arrangement to appear in the rest of papers which the petitioners could not give before the publication of result of civil service mains examination 2021,” the plea said.

It claimed that absence of policy and no arrangement to accommodate COVID-19 positive petitioners to appear in the civil service mains examination 2021 have violated their rights, including that of under Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution of India.