New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition seeking the postponement of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) preliminary examination, scheduled to take place on Sunday.
While refusing to reschedule the exam, a bench headed by Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar said, "Nine lakh students are ready to appear in the exam and it cannot be postponed."
A section of students had last month protested demanding the scrapping of the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), terming the English Comprehension test in the preliminary examination discriminatory towards non-English speaking candidates. The CSAT or Civil Services Aptitude Test, of which the English section is a part, was introduced in 2011.
Following protests, the Centre decided that the marks of the English Language Comprehension Skills, asked in second paper of civil services (preliminary) examination, will not be included for gradation.
Later, the UPSC came out with the decision asking candidates to leave the questions unanswered as the section will not have any bearing on the merit list due to non-evaluation.
There are two compulsory papers of 200 marks each in the preliminary examination - CSAT I and CSAT II. The latter carries questions on comprehension, interpersonal skills including communication skills, logical reasoning and analytical ability, decision-making and problem-solving, general mental ability, basic numeracy, and the 20-mark English language comprehension skills of Class X level.
The civil services examination is conducted by the UPSC in three stages -- preliminary, main, and interview -- to choose candidates for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.