SC refuses to defer civil services prelims examination

The Supreme Court on Saturday refused to postpone civil services preliminary examination scheduled for tomorrow, saying the objections raised by students on comprehension part have been addressed and the exam can't be stayed at the last hour when nine lakh students are ready to appear.

In a special hearing, a bench of justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra, which assembled today on a non-working day, dismissed the plea for a stay on the examination.

The bench granted a patient hearing for around half-an-hour but did not agree with the contention of the petitioner that the examination procedure favours students of science background.

"You have pointed out only one point that is on comprehension and it has been removed. Defect has been remedied," the bench said. It was referring to UPSC's decision asking candidates not to answer questions in English Comprehensive section of the preliminary exam following protest over its inclusion.

Advocate Ravindra S Garia and Vishal Sinha, appearing for the petitioner Angesh Kumar, submitted that the present pattern of examination is already skewed against the students from non-urban background and from humanities and non-engineering/science/management streams.

"Your difficulty has been removed so you are in better position. Your grievance has been decided in your favour.

Merit cannot be assessed in your way," it said, adding that these are academic issues which should be left to the government and expert bodies to decide.

The bench, however, observed that the bright students opt for science and medicine stream and that may be reason why people from such stream do well in exams.

"Where do the most intelligent students go? The cream goes to science and medicine. So students from those stream score marks higher than the students from humanities background," the bench said, adding, "No system is perfect".

It also asked the petitioner why he approached the court so late.

"Everything is same. Syllabus is same. Why do you need more time? Nine lakh students are ready to appear in the exam.

What to do if one is not ready. All students applied in May and they have prepared for the exam," it said, adding, "We find no merit in this petition and the same is accordingly dismissed".