The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a plea seeking postponement of the UPSC civil services preliminary examination 2020 due to the constant rise in the number of Coronavirus infections in the country. A three-judge bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar will hear the plea.
The plea has been filed by 20 UPSC Civil Services aspirants from across the country and the exam is currently scheduled to be held on October 4th.
The petitioners, who hail from various parts of the country have told the Court that the conduction of the UPSC exams in such circumstances might pose a severe on the safety and health of the candidates.
On September 24, the apex Court had asked advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, appearing with the petitioners, to present a copy of the petition to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Centre.
About six lakh aspirants are estimated to appear for the seven-hour offline exam at various centres spread across 72 cities.
A fresh application in the case has also been filed on behalf of an Assistant Commandant of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) who is to appear for the examination. The applicant has also sought postponement of the preliminary examination. The petition said that holding the exam will be discriminatory towards the candidates from majorly affected states and others, where COVID-19 cases are less.
Earlier, the exams were scheduled to be held on the 31st of May but were postponed due to the constant rise in the number of cases across the country. On June 5th, UPSC came out with a revised time table, scheduling the exams on the 4th of October.
