Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by scores of UPSC aspirants, who had exhausted their last attempt in October last year’s exam amid outbreak, seeking one more chance at the civil services exam.

The central government had informed the Supreme Court (SC) that it is not in favour of one-time easing to UPSC civil service students, to those who are age-barred, as it will be unfair to other candidates. Stating the judgment, a bench comprising Justices Indu Malhotra and Ajay Rastogi said ‘the petition is dismissed.’ Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the Centre, had submitted before the SC that initially the government was not willing to give an extra chance but it relaxed its decision after a suggestion from the bench.

The UPSC aspirants, who exhausted all attempts last October, amid mental and physical trauma due to the COVID-19 crisis had requested the SC to give directions to provide them an extra attempt.

"During this pandemic, while everyone had a choice to save their attempt by leaving the exam in 2020, while taking care of their health, the last attempters were given no choice at all and had to sit for the exam, despite the lack of opportunity to prepare", the petitioners have argued.

Raju had stressed that the government is not willing to dilute its stand on age-barred candidates, and insisted that these are policy matters beyond the purview of the court. "This is not the exam where you prepare at the last minute. People prepare for years together", submitted Raju.

Agreeing to the final attempt, the Centre had said: "Relaxation, only to the extent of providing one extra attempt for Civil Service Examination (CSE), specifically limited to CSE-2021, may be granted to only those candidates who appeared for CSE-2020 as their last permissible attempt and are otherwise not age-barred from appearing in CSE-2021."

The top court, however, pressed that the government should consider giving age-relaxation as a one-time measure. The Centre had told the top court that no relaxation can be granted for CSE-2021 to those candidates who have not exhausted their permissible number of attempts or to those candidates who are otherwise age-barred from appearing in CSE-2021 as per the prescribed age limits of different categories, or to any other candidate for any other reason whatsoever.

(With inputs from IANS)