Delhi High Court dismisses aspirants' plea against UPSC-issued detailed application form

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed an application against the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC)-issued Detailed Application Form (DAF) dated July 10 inviting applications for Civil Services (Main) Examination 2023.

A bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh dismissed the urgent application filed by 17 civil services aspirants in their main plea seeking the release of the answer key of prelims examination.

The aspirants have submitted that the UPSC, with an intention to subvert the process of law and justice, arbitrarily issued the DAF for mains examination, so that their plea before court itself becomes infructuous.

The high court, on July 3, had asked the UPSC to file its preliminary objections on a plea filed by the aspirants also seeking the cancellation of the prelims and re-conducting it with general studies papers 1 and 2, as well as the release of the answer key.

The same bench was dealing with the plea, which also challenges the press note issued by the UPSC on June 12 declaring the results of the preliminary examination.

In it, the UPSC had stated 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. https://upsc.gov.in only after the entire process of the Civil Services Examination 2023 is over, that is, after the declaration of final result”.

The high court had, however, refused to issue notice on the plea at this stage and posted the matter for further consideration on July 26. It was submitted that the impugned press note has been challenged on the ground that the UPSC is not making available the answer key to the candidates calling the decision “arbitrary”.

The plea seeks direction for UPSC to publish the answer key with immediate effect.

The petitioners have alleged arbitrariness in the conduct of the recruitment cycle, citing the lack of provision of answer keys, disregarding candidates' representations, and posing excessively vague questions that require guesswork. They have argued that releasing the answer key after the exam would ensure fairness and allow candidates to have a better understanding of the evaluation process.

The petition also highlights that other institutions, such as state Public Service Commissions, IITs, NLUs, IIMs, and the High Court of Delhi for the Delhi Judicial Service Examination, promptly release provisional answer keys and invite objections from candidates before finalising the answer key based on those objections.