UPSC Civil Service mains 2021: Delhi HC dismisses plea to postpone exam

UPSC Civil Services Mains Examination are scheduled to begin from January 7 at centers across the country. However, looking at the alarming increase in COVID-19 cases in India, some students had filed a plea asking for a direction to postpone the Mains to January 16 instead of January 7.

However, Justice V Kameswar Rao dismissed the plea on January 6, Wednesday. “I am dismissing the petition. I am not interfering with the decision. I will pass the orders,” he said.

The plea was submitted by 19 students who have cleared their Civil Services Preliminary Examinations. These students claimed that they are worried about the safety of themselves and other candidates amid the rising cases of coronavirus, especially the recently-detected Omicron variant in the country.

“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 plea said.

Advocate Anushree Kapadia, who was representing the students, added that students are at high risk of contracting the deadly virus as there will be nearly 30 candidates in a room for six hours. She also claimed that there is no Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in place to protect the students as well as their families from getting infected by COVID-19.

However, Advocate Naresh Kaushik, who was representing UPSC, claimed that the number of students protesting the exam date are very less in comparison to the students who want to appear for the exam, beginning from January 7. To prove his point, he also stated that out of 9,100 registered candidates 9,0856 have already downloaded their admit cards.