UPSC 2011: Aspirants who didn't appear for Prelims to get extra chance

New Delhi: Civil Service aspirants who applied for the civil service exam 2011 but didn't appear for the exam following the introduction of CSAT are given with an additional chance to write the exam.

The decision was taken recently by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). The UPSC aspirants staged a protest against change in the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) or Paper II of civil services preliminary examination.

The government has decided to provide one more chance to the students who appeared for 2011 exam on the ground that CSAT had been unfair to the Hindi-medium Students.

The students who had applied for UPSC 2011 but didn't appear for the exam due to introduction of CSAT had also moved the CAT demanding for an additional attempt.

The order came from the principle bench of CAT. "The applicants herein may also be permitted to participate in the examination provisionally without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties in the OA (Original Application) on merits.

Speaking to TOI Justice A K Bhardwaj said "It is made clear that their participation in the examination would not create any right or equity in their favour and the results of the applicants herein would not be declared till further orders by the Tribunal."

The bench passed the order after noting the submission made by UPSC counsel.

Avinash Mani Tripathi, a lawyer associated with the case said, "This order applies to all those students who had applied but opted out from the test."

A total of 4,72,290 candidates had applied for civil services preliminary examination 2011, of which 2,43,003 had appeared.

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The preliminary examination pattern of civil services was changed from 2011 onwards. Previously, Paper I was formulated on general studies and candidates were to choose an optional subject for Paper II.

UPSC Civil Service Preliminary exam is scheduled to be conducted on August 23, 2015 at various exam centres.

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a nationwide competitive examination in India. The examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to various Civil Services of the Government of India.

The exam is conducted in two phases: the Preliminary examination, consisting of two objective-type papers (General Studies and Aptitude Test), and the Main examination, consisting of nine papers of conventional (essay) type followed by the Personality Test (Interview).