UPSC Civil Services exam 2017: SC to hear plea on wrong questions, main exam in October

The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a plea on UPSC civil questions. It was alleged that this year the prestigious Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam's two questions were “wrong”. 

The plea will be examined by a three-judge bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, asked the petitioner, who was arguing the matter in-person, to serve a copy of the plea to the Centre’s counsel and fixed it for hearing on August 1.

However, when the petitioner asked the bench, also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, as to what will happen if the results of the UPSC prelims exam, 2017 isdeclared by August 1, the court said, "Do you think we willstay the result? We will see what is to be done".

UPSC aspirant Ashita Chawla, who has filed the petition, claimed before the apex court that a "couple of questions" in the UPSC preliminary examination were "wrong".

"There are rules for determining whether the questions are wrong? The result is yet to be declared. It (result) will come out any day," she told the bench. The bench observed that her plea cannot be treated as a public interest litigation (PIL) as she had only put forth her grievance in personal capacity.

The UPSC had conducted the civil service preliminary exam 2017 on June 18. The preliminary examination consisted of two papers having objective type questions and they carried amaximum of 400 marks.

The petitoner has claimed that this year's preliminary examination paper had questions with multiple answers and many of them could have been answered on the subjective interpretation of the examinees. She has also referred to earlier judgements of the apex court which had said that a question having two or more corrects answers should be considered as incorrect. 

The result has begun the countdown for the UPSC Civil Services Main exam which will be conducted on October 28, 2017. The Main exam will be held over duration of five days. The admit card for the Main exam will be available by the first week of October. 

Last year, more than 1 lakh candidates had appeared for the prelim exams. The exact number of candidates who appeared this year is yet to be released by the commission. 

This year, the UPSC Civil Services exam is being held for recruitment of 980 candidates to top bureaucratic posts in the country. Last year, 1099 candidates were selected through UPSC Civil Services exam. 

With PTI Input