Supreme Court allows 5 civil services candidates to appear for an Interview

By Raunak Raj Tiwari

Only an unprejudiced & autonomous judiciary can protect the right of the individual & provide equal justice without apprehension or goodwill. The Supreme Court has been provided with inherent powers which can be used in extraordinary situations.

The recent order of the Supreme Court allowing five civil services candidates to attend their interview even though they failed to submit their graduation degree because of the Covid 19 pandemic. The Union Public Service Commission had fixed dates for submitting minimum educational qualification degrees for students qualifying Mains exam. 

A petition was filed before the Supreme Court by 5 Delhi University undergraduate students who were disqualified by the UPSC from attending the interview because they failed to submit their graduation degree in time due to the Covid situation.

This was an extraordinary situation where the Supreme Court took an extraordinary move and allowed the five candidates to appear for the interview and submit their graduation degrees after the passing of the due date. Supreme Court bench considered this case as an extraordinary case because neither the student nor the university had committed any wrong on their part, it was due to Covid 19 pandemic university was late in declaring the result of the students.

The Supreme Court issued an order that “In light of the peculiar facts, the court requested the UPSC to reveal the number of individuals similarly placed as the petitioners who may have qualified for the main examination exam but failed to submit their degrees before the due date”.

Supreme Court using the inherent power vested under Article 142 of the Constitution directed the UPSC to allow all the five candidates to appear in the interview along with post candidates in respect of their categories. Supreme Court further clarified that this case should not be treated as a precedent.