Central Administrative Tribunal has come to the rescue of those civil services aspirants who applied but did not take the premilinary examination in 2011 due to the introduction of CSAT, by asking UPSC to provisionally allow them an additional attempt this year.
Owing to last year's protest by UPSC aspirants demanding change in the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) or Paper II of civil services preliminary examination, the government had decided to give an extra chance to the students who had appeared in the prestigious exam in 2011 on the ground that CSAT had been unfair to the Hindi-medium students.
Some of the students, who did not appear even after applying in the UPSC fearing the newly introduced CSAT, moved the CAT seeking an additional attempt, saying they should also be treated at par with those who had appeared in the premilinary examination in 2011.
The order came from the principle bench of CAT here where students referred to the order passed by another bench and sought an additional attempt.
"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.
"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," a bench headed by Justice A K Bhardwaj said.
The bench passed the order after noting the submission made by UPSC counsel who had said that he had informal conversation with concerned authorities who had informed him that the petitioners who have obtained stay and seeking permission to appear in the examination were being granted provisional permission.
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.
The pattern of civil services preliminary examination was changed from 2011 onwards. Previously, Paper I used to be on general studies and candidates were to choose an optional subject for Paper II.
General category candidates were permitted six attempts, according to the notification by UPSC for civil services examination, 2014. UPSC Civil Service Preliminary exam is scheduled to be conducted on August 23, 2015 at various exam centres.
