Plea over exclusion of English in civil service exam rejected

The Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to provide relief to a civil service aspirant challenging the decision of the UPSC asking candidates to leave questions unanswered in the English comprehensive section in the preliminary test.

The English comprehensive questions will not be checked in the examination scheduled for Aug 24.

Dinesh Bhatia, a woman civil service aspirant, moved the court against the Aug 16 notification of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) that the English comprehensive section will not have any bearing on the merit list due to non-evaluation.

Justice Hima Kohli refused to entertain the plea saying it was a service matter and the high court was not the proper forum to challenge the UPSC notification, and that the plea should be filed before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

"You (petitioner) have remedy in CAT. Anybody looking for appointment with the union and wish to challenge its order has to go to CAT," the court said.

The petitioner's advocate Vikas Nagwan, however, withdrew the plea saying he will file a PIL in the high court on the same issue.

The court granted him liberty to file the public interest litigation (PIL).

Following protests by a section of students over the English comprehension test in the civil services preliminary examination, the centre decided to remove the questions on English language in the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT).

After the central government decision, the UPSC came out with a notification asking candidates to leave the questions unanswered.

The UPSC said the maximum marks for Paper II would be 200 minus the marks earmarked for the Class 10-level English language comprehension skills.