SC agrees to take up petition on UPSC exam

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up a petition filed by a dozen petitioners challenging the revised list of the Civil Service Examination (CSE)-2007 prepared by UPSC. The petition filed by Praneet Choudhary and other candidates who appeared in the exam had questioned the UPSC's decision to revise the result by deleting names of 96 quota candidates from the general list and adding their names to the reserved category list. The petition sought the quashing of the second provisional list published by UPSC on 26th June in which the names of 96 reserved category candidates, selected under relaxed standards, were deleted and were kept in the reserved category list. The revised provisional list was published after the apex court on 19th May had stayed the Madras High Court decision setting aside the merit list prepared by the UPSC for the year 2007. The High Court on 20th March had quashed Rule 16(2) of the UPSC by holding it as 'null and void' saying that it ran counter to the benefit of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBC candidates and was not affirmative, progressive and pragmatic in achieving social justice. A petition was earlier filed by the aggrieved reserved category candidates contended that quashing of Rule 16(2) was inconsistent with other provisions of the CSE Rules and was violative of Articles 14, 16(4) and 335 of the Constitution. The petitioners contended that the two Constitution Benches of the apex court in their earlier judgements had already ruled that a reserved category candidate selected in general merit list cannot be counted in the reserve category for the purpose of total number of seats to be allocated to them. Further, the petition said that Rule 16(1) of the amended CSE Rule categorically states that reserved category candidates selected in general merit list without recourse to any relaxation would not be counted as those belonging to the reserve category.

"Loved reading this piece by SANJAY DIXIT?
Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!"

Join our Telegram group

Join our Whatsapp group