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Published 15:46 IST, September 30th 2020

UPSC Prelims 2020: Supreme Court dismisses students' request to postpone the exam

The Union Public Service Commission examination will be held on October 4 as the Supreme Court dismisses plea seeking a postponement. See

Reported by: Disha Kandpal
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In the Wednesday, September 30 hearing, the Supreme Court of India refused to postpone UPSC civil services preliminary exam. The Union Public Service Commission has scheduled the UPSC Prelims 2020 exam on October 4, 2020. The hearing started at 11:40 AM, with Senior advocate VK Shukla appearing on the behalf of the petitioners. The hearing took place after the UPSC refused to address students' grievances and decided to conduct the exams on October 4. Read on to know more:

Read | UPSC Prelims 2020: UPSC tells SC exams cannot be postponed past October 4

Supreme Court on UPSC Prelims

A report on Bar & Bench website revealed that the Supreme Court bench consisted of Justices A M Khanwilkar, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari. Advocate Shukla who appeared in the hearing on behalf of the petitioner urged the court to make a decision in the favour of the students. He also requested the UPSC to be more humane. 

To this, the bench replied that the Union Public Service Commission had already submitted a list of all the necessary arrangements made in order to ensure security and social distancing measure amidst the pandemic. The Bench stated to Advocate Shukla that more arrangements can be made if the petitioners were seeking more security measures. But, seeking postponement was out of the question at this point.

Read | UPSC Recruitment 2020 notification out; 42 vacancies for engineers, MBBS degree holders

Advocate Shukla further reported that one of the petitioners main grievances was the distance between place and residence and the exam centre. Given the virus is still a looming threat, travelling could prove to be dangerous. To this, the Bench replied saying that this argument could have been made in April, but given that the country has been unlocked, travelling should not be much of a problem now.

Read | UPSC Prelims 2020: Special trains for civil services candidates in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha

Corona Warriors, doctors and pregnant ladies among the UPSC candidates

Furthering his argument, Advocate Shukla said that some of the candidates were corona warriors, doctors and even pregnant ladies. He further stated that given the fact that all libraries, reading rooms and coaching institutions were closed, most candidates had been deprived of study material. To this the Bench replied saying that these were individual issues, they cannot be considered public issues.

Read | UPSC NDA, NA 2019 results out on ‘upsc.gov.in’; know steps to download marksheet

What is the UPSC 2020 Exam schedule?

According to a report on UPSC’s official website, the Civil Services (UPSC) prelims and Indian Forest Service (Preliminary) Examination will be held on October 4. The I.E.S./I.S.S. The examination will be held on Oct.16. The Combined Geo-Scientist (Main) Examination, will be held on October 17-18, 2020.

  • Engineering Services (Main) Examination, 2020-October 18, 2020
  • Combined Medical Services Examination, 2020-October 22, 2020
  • Central Armed Police Forces (ACs) Examination, 2020-December 20, 2020

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Updated 15:46 IST, September 30th 2020