In a good news for lakhs of civil services aspirants, the government today decided to give two additional attempts with consequential age relaxation to all categories of candidates of the prestigious exam conducted by Union Public Service Commission.
"The central government has approved two additional attempts to all categories of candidates with effect from Civil Services Examination 2014, with consequential age relaxation of maximum age for all categories of candidates, if required," the Ministry of Personnel said in an order.
The move comes close on the heels of an assurance by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to a delegation of civil service aspirants that steps will be taken to redress their grievances.
As per existing rules, a candidate is permitted a maximum of four attempts. The maximum age limit for such candidates is 30 years.
There is no restriction on number of attempts by a candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
As many as seven attempts are permissible to an aspirant belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), according to a notification issued for Civil Services Examinations, 2013.
Today's government order will especially benefit those aspirants who have exhausted their four attempts and running 30 years of age. "Such aspirants will get two more attempts till 32 years of age," a senior official of Personnel Ministry said.
The rules will soon be notified by the government for further clarity non age relaxations, he said.
The age relaxation of up to 32 years will not be given to those candidates who have exhausted six attempts before 30 years of age, the official added.
The Civil Services Examination (Preliminary), 2014 is tentatively scheduled to be held on August 24, this year.
The Civil Service Examinations is conducted by the UPSC to select Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Foreign Service (IFS) among others.
The examinations is conducted in three stages-- preliminary, mains and interview.
