[BREAKING] Supreme Court dismisses plea by Last Attempt Civil Service candidates seeking extra chance at UPSC prelims 2021

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking an extra attempt at the Civil Service Exam Prelims 2021 for those civil services aspirants who had exhausted all their attempts in October 2020 (Rachna & Ors v. Union of India)..The judgment was rendered by a three-judge Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Indu Malhotra and Ajay Rastogi..The Court ruled,"If an additional attempt remains restricted to the last attemptees for the reason that they had suffered during Covid 19 pandemic, all attemptees irrespective of the nature of attempt (i.e. 1st, 2nd etc.) who appeared in Examination 2020 must have faced the same consequences as being faced by the writ petitioners and each one of them have suffered in one way or the other during the Covid19 pandemic. At the same time, this reasoning would equally apply to those who have crossed the upper age barrier.".It was further held that no distinction could be made between candidates who availed their last attempt and those who still could still give the exam."More so, when no discretion is left with the 1st respondent to grant relaxation in the age bracket to the candidates other than provided under Rule 6 of the scheme of Rules 2020 which indeed the present petitioners are not entitled to claim as a matter of right and that apart, those who have withdrawn their forms either because of lack of preparation or because of some personal reasons but have crossed the upper age limit to appear in CSE 2021, they would also be equally entitled to claim and no distinction could be made whether the candidate has appeared in the Examination 2020 and availed the last attempt or attempts is still available at his disposal or has crossed the upper age limit.".Reiterating the limited scope of judicial review of policy decisions, the Court held,"Merely because as a matter of policy, if the 1st respondent has granted relaxation in the past for the reason that there was a change in the examination pattern/syllabus and in the given situation, had considered to be an impediment for the participant in the Civil Service Examination, no assistance can be claimed by the petitioners in seeking mandamus to the 1st respondent to come out with a policy granting relaxation to the participants who had availed a final and last attempt or have crossed the upper age by appearing in the Examination 2020 as a matter of right.".The petitioners in the present case had approached the Supreme Court contending that they failed to appear for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) CSE Prelims 2020 due to the disruptions caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and thus, sought an extra attempt at the exam..UPSC limits the number of times a candidate can appear for the Civil Services examination. The limit is currently six attempts for General Category candidates, with an upper age limit of 32 years. Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates have nine attempts till the age of 35 years, while Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) candidates can attempt the exam till the age of 37 years..The government earlier told the Supreme Court that such candidates who appeared for CSE-2020 as their last permissible attempt will be allowed one more extra attempt. This was specifically limited those candidates who are otherwise not age-barred from appearing in CSE-2021.."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 note filed by the Central government said..This relaxation shall be a one-time relaxation only and shall apply only for appearing in CSE-2021 and shall not be treated as a precedent, the government had clarified..No relaxation shall 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, the note further stated..Senior Advocates Shyam Divan, CU Singh and PS Narasimha, appearing for the petitioners, had submitted that not granting relaxation on the age limit would be arbitrary and unreasonable..Narasimha submitted that the age bar has affected vulnerable people the most. "Covid has drastically changed their position. The IAS aspirations will be totally done away with. They will now be completely excluded," he said..They are to be public servants, not students: Supreme Court refuses to postpone UPSC Prelims.Singh, appearing for one of the intervenors, submitted that when relaxation was given in 2011 for one time, it was given in 2015 again, and the age bar was also relaxed that time..Additional Solicitor General SV Raju objected to the demand for extending the extra attempt proposal to the age-barred candidates, stating that "litigation is not for the candidates sitting on the fence."."The hardships due to COVID-19 affected all candidates uniformly and if extra chance is given to last-attempt candidates, other candidates will also start demanding the same, leading to an endless cycle," the ASG had added..The petition on behalf of aggrieved students was filed by Advocate Anushree Kapadia..[Read judgment]