Can't change number of attempts, age limit for civil services exam: Centre

The Centre on Wednesday said it has not been found feasible to change the existing provisions regarding the number of attempts and the age limit for the civil services examination.

A parliamentary committee had on March 24 asked the government to "change its mind" and sympathetically consider the demand of civil services examination aspirants and grant an extra attempt with corresponding age relaxation to them.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said, representations have been received from the civil services examination aspirants about the grant of age relaxation and extra attempts to the candidates due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The issue was also brought before the Supreme Court vide writ petitions by the civil services examination aspirants, he said.

"Based on the judgments passed by the hon'ble apex court, the matter has been considered and it has not been found feasible to change the existing provisions regarding the number of attempts and age limit in respect of the civil services examination," Singh said.

The civil services examination is conducted annually by the Union Public Service Commission in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview -- to select officers of the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Police Service among others.

The minister said the UPSC has informed that in respect of objective-type examinations, such as the civil services preliminary exam, the answer keys are declared only after the entire process of the exam is completed, that is after the declaration of the final result.

It is kept at the commission's website for one month in the active window and for another one month in the archive.

The UPSC has also informed that it publishes the results in a reasonable timeframe in pursuit of adherence to its annual calendar of examinations which is notified well in advance, Singh said.

It has further informed that the disclosure of answer sheets is exempted vide Supreme Court's judgement dated February 20, 2018, Singh said in the Rajya Sabha.