The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by civil service aspirants seeking an extra attempt to sit for the Civil Service (Preliminary) examination to be held this year. The petitioners, some of whom were frontline workers during Covid-19, had exhausted their last attempt at the examination held last year amid the pandemic and moved the top court to spare them an extra chance.
The petitioners, numbering over 100, were barred by age or number of attempts and were ineligible to appear in the preliminary exam to be conducted this year. Although the Centre had initially opposed the petitions, towards the end of the proceedings, it decided to create a “one time” exception for those who lost out on another attempt at the civil services having exhausted their quota of attempts.