Yesterday, Delhi High Court directed the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) to file its “preliminary objections” in a plea against a June 12 press note which states that the answer key of the preliminary exam will be uploaded only after the “after the entire process of the Civil Services Examination 2023 is over”.

A single-headed bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh directed the commission to file its preliminary objections

Further, the court noted that the petitioner counsel’s submission that they were not pressing prayers a and b of the petition – 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”.

The plea moved by 17 civil services aspirants-petitioners has also challenged the June 12 press note of the commission and has sought a direction to the body to publish the answer key with immediate effect.

The petitioners’ counsel submitted today, “We believe that there are certain questions which can be answered two ways and, therefore, there is no question of not disclosing the answer key”. He further argued that not making the answer key available to the candidates is a “gross violation of natural justice, therefore, this court has jurisdiction to adjudicate the grievance of the petitioners”.

Appearing for the UPSC, advocate Naresh Kaushik “vehemently opposed” the plea on “maintainability” and submitted that the Administrative Tribunals Act bars the jurisdiction of the High Court to adjudicate the dispute regarding the recruitment and the press note is also a process of recruitment.

“Therefore this court has no jurisdiction to entertain the petition, as the petitioner has remedy before the tribunal”, Kaushik said and sought to file the preliminary objections to the plea.

The plea states that normally 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 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. 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 plea states.

The next date of hearing is on 26th July.