The Delhi High Court Wednesday reserved verdict on the "maintainability" of a plea against a June 12 press note of UPSC which said the answer key of the preliminary exam will be uploaded only after the “entire process of the Civil Services Examination 2023 is over”. "Judgment reserved," a single judge bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said while asking the parties to file a written note of arguments on the maintainability of the plea. The plea moved by 17 civil services aspirants has challenged the June 12 press note of the Union Public Service Commission and has sought a direction to the body to publish the answer key with immediate effect. On July 3, the petitioners’ counsels had said they were not pressing prayers a and b of the petition, which sought to quash the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination, 2023, and re-conduct the preliminary test and General Studies Paper 1 and 2, “at this stage”. During the course of the hearing Wednesday, the High Court orally advised the petitioners to make a representation to the authorities concerned on the issue. The counsel appearing for the petitioners said, “Why can't UPSC come out and tell the reason as to why the answer key was not published? I am not asking for the answer sheet, I am only asking for the answer key to see what is the right answer". UPSC's counsel submitted the exam is related to recruitment and all matters relating to recruitment will go before the Central Administrative Tribunal. To this, the petitioner's counsel said his clients were not seeking recruitment and added as of now the recruitment had not happened, therefore CAT won't have the jurisdiction. The plea states that when a competitive exam is conducted, the answer key to the questions (multiple choice questions) is prepared in advance so the same can be released after the exam is conducted, giving a “fair evaluation to the candidates”. However, the plea also stated the June 12 press note titled “result of civil services preliminary examination” mentions that “candidates are also informed that marks, cut off marks and answer keys of CS(P) Examination, 2023 will be uploaded on the Commission’s website i.e. , only after the entire process of the Civil Services Examination 2023 is over, that is, after the declaration of final result”.
