Decision to revise UPSC merit list challenged

The revised provisional list was published after the apex court on May 19 had stayed the Madras HC decision setting aside the merit list prepared by the UPSC. The court on March 20 had quashed Rule 162 of the CSE by holding it as 8216;null and void8217; 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.

The petitioners contended that the two Constitution Benches of the apex court, in their earlier judgements, had said that a reserved category candidate selected in general merit list cannot be counted in the reserved category to tally with the total number of seats allocated to them.