High Court denied request to postpone UPSC Civil Services Mains Exams

In light of the unexpected rise in Covid cases, the Delhi High Court on Thursday denied a petition seeking to postpone the UPSC Civil Services Mains test, which is set to begin on Friday at locations throughout the country.

While denying a petition made by 19 applicants who had passed the Civil Services Preliminary Exams and requested a postponement of the Main Exams, which were scheduled for January 7 to 16. Justice V Kameswar Rao said, "Ï am dismissing the petition. I am not interfering with the decision. I will pass the orders."

They said in their appeal that the examinations should be postponed due to the widespread COVID-19 infection, particularly the Omicron version, which is growing faster in India than any other previously discovered variation.

The plea says, “Due to the imminent third wave of COVID-19 with its new variant Omicron the petitioners not only run imminent risk of getting infected and getting threat to their life, but also are at a risk of losing out their valuable attempt, which for some candidates is also a last attempt to give the examinations and all this without any fault on their part. Recently, COVID-19 has spread severely in several states, cities including various educational centers.”

The petitioners' lawyer, Anushree Kapadia, said that, in addition to those who have already received the virus, others would be in danger of contracting it while taking the tests because they will be sitting in a room with 30 other applicants for six hours.

She claims that the candidates' and their families health and safety are at stake and that no Standard Operating Procedures are in place.

She said that the candidates would risk being exposed to the virus by traveling from hotels to centers and then returning to their hometowns.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) objected to the appeal, claiming that similar pleas were submitted to postpone preliminary examinations when the Delta variation of COVID-19 was emerging and the Supreme Court had rejected it.

Only a small number of candidates have approached the court to request a postponement of the exam, which Advocate Naresh Kaushik, appearing for the UPSC, said could not be done at this time because all preparations have been completed by the authorities and candidates have spent late nights studying for the exam.

He claimed that out of the 9,100 students who passed the preliminary tests, 9085 have already downloaded their admission cards and that the new virus version is minor, therefore exams would be handled cautiously.

The attorney emphasized that this is not the only exam being performed during the pandemic and that several others have been held as well, and that applicants should follow basic COVID-19 standards such as wearing masks to protect themselves from the virus.

He said that applicants had previously been offered the option of changing their centers and that 1,185 of them had done so.

The attorney stated that there are 24 examination centres and 58 sub-centers, with supervisors present in addition to examiners, head examiners, and other employees.