The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Union Public Service Commission (respondent) to issue admit cards to eight candidates for the Mains Exam, scheduled to be held on September 15, 2023.
The Bench of Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra granted interim relief to the petitioners on the grounds that their interest would be affected if they were not allowed to appear for the examination.
It observed that since the results of the undergraduate exam have been declared, whether the petitioners no 1 and 2 would qualify was an aspect, which would require consideration subsequently.
Making it subject to the final result of this petition, the Bench directed UPSC to issue the necessary admission ticket to appear for the test.
UPSC had rejected the candidature of two of the petitioners due to the non-submission of provisional certificates in support of their educational qualification. As regards other six petitioners, the respondent had cited certain errors in the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) certificates.
The Apex Court granted a similar relief to the six petitioners, whose candidatures were rejected due to errors in EWS certificates.
Appearing on behalf of the petitioners, Advocate Gaurav Agarwal contended that the petitioners were students at the relevant time and were in their final year of the qualifying examination.
The results have been declared by their Universities after submission of DAF- I, wherein the petitioners have passed the qualifying examinations.
Therefore, the petitioners at the time of filling the DAF-I submitted their Bonafide Certificate issued by their respective Universities and an undertaking stating that they would submit their final degree as soon as the same was made available to them, he added.
Advocate Agarwal further submitted that as per Rule 3 Note II of Civil Services Rules, 2023, a candidate who appeared for the UPSC Prelims Exam, 2023, his attempt would be counted, whether he qualified for the Mains Exam or not.
In the present case, the petitioners had duly qualified for the prelims exam and had a requisite educational qualification at the time of the Mains Exam, 2023. If their candidature was cancelled at this stage, they would lose out an attempt for no fault of theirs, noted the counsel.
He argued that the exclusion of petitioners on the ground that they had not submitted proof of their educational qualification by the due date of July 19, 2023 without taking into consideration the fact that the results of the petitioners were declared after the submission of DAF-I would be arbitrary.
He further argued regarding the case of discrepancies in EWS certificates, submitting that UPSC’s rejection of candidates based on minor errors was unreasonable and arbitrary.
Taking the example of petitioner no 8 Shweta Tiwari, he said the respondent had arbitrarily rejected her candidature on the ground that there was overwriting on the EWS certificate.
He further submitted that the Competent Authority had clarified that any such overwriting was on their part and there was no fault of petitioner no 8, yet the said certificate was not being considered by the respondent.
Advocate-on-Record Tanya Shree also represented the petitioners.