The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing for February 5 for a plea seeking an extra chance for civil service aspirants who had given their last attempt at the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam in October 2020.
A Bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar posted the matter for Friday after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the government requested the adjournment of the matter.
Solicitor General sought adjournment saying the government needed some time to discuss the matter.
"We need some time to discuss the matter. Of course, we cannot seek time and do something irreversible. We are seeking adjournment as there may not be a need to trouble the court," Solicitor General told the top court.
The bench while granting adjournment took on record the assurance given by the Solicitor General that the government will not notify the rules by then.
Last week, the bench had asked the Centre and UPSC to explain why no extra attempt can be given to civil services aspirants when such relaxation has been extended earlier and sought to know how many times extra attempts were given to candidates, previously.
Today, appearing for Centre, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju submitted a chart to the court the details of the number of times relaxation had been given in the past and how many candidates would come into the fray if such relaxation was given.
"In the years 1992 and 2015, a relaxation had been given due to pattern change in the examination, additionally, there was no system of preliminary examination back then," the bench was informed.
The Centre had earlier told the top court that no extra attempt for UPSC will be given to students who had their last attempt in October and those who could not appear due to COVID-19.
Before that, the court was informed that the proposal to give extra change to civil service aspirants affected by the COVID-19 is under active consideration by the government and UPSC.
The bench was hearing a petition seeking an extra attempt in the UPSC exams for those candidates who had their last attempt in the preliminary exam held in October 2020. It also sought an extra opportunity to students who could not appear for civil service exams due to COVID-19.
Petitioner had earlier submitted that the court has directed the Centre to consider grant of an extra chance considering the difficulties that arose due to COVID-19.
On September 30, the Supreme Court had directed the Central government and the UPSC to consider granting an extra chance to candidates who otherwise had their last attempt in 2020, with the corresponding extension of the upper age-limit.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on October 26 had informed the Supreme Court that the issue regarding the grant of extra attempt to last chance candidates was under the consideration of the authorities.
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