UPSC Civil Services 2021 Prelims: Centre to give one more chance to those who missed 'last attempt' at exam due to COVID

The Centre has agreed to give a one-time relaxation to candidates who missed their last attempt at the UPSC Civil Services preliminary exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them another chance at the competitive exam. This relaxation, however, will be available only to those who are within the permissible age limit to sit for the civil services exam. The Supreme Court of India had directed the Central Government and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to consider providing an extra chance to candidates who otherwise have their last attempt in 2020. Replying to this, now the Centre has granted a one-time relaxation in the number of attempts allowed for UPSC Civil Services prelims. According to a report by Times Now, the Central Government was represented by ASG Suryaprakash V Raju who said that they would allow an extra attempt but not an extra year for those who could not attempt the exams due to the pandemic. The report mentioned that only those candidates who are within the permissible age limit to sit for the civil services exam and have exhausted their number of attempts will be allowed. As the reply was not in a simple yes or no format and had conditions in it, the apex court has instructed for copies of the reply to be made and circulated amongst all the advocated parties. The matter has been adjourned for Monday. It is being expected that the Supreme Court will be giving their judgement in the case before the commission releases notification for the UPSC Prelims 2021 examination. As per an NDTV report, the court was hearing a case filed by Rachna Singh who is a civil services aspirant. She had sought an extra attempt in the UPSC exams for those candidates who had exhausted their last attempt in 2020 and missed it due to the pandemic situation. The preliminary exam was arranged in October last year. Earlier, the Centre had refused to introduce a relaxation for the candidates as it would likely be detrimental to the entire system of public examination. The reply had also expressed apprehensions about the creation of a “cascading” effect where a “level playing field” of the candidates gets affected.