Today, Supreme Court of India rejected a writ petitions filed by certain civil service aspirants challenging the decision made by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) regarding their categorization as general category candidates.

The UPSC took this action because these aspirants had not submitted the required certificates pertaining to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category in the prescribed format before the specified cutoff date for the 2022 Civil Service Examinations (CSE).

As a result of the Supreme Court's decision, these aspirants will continue to be considered as general category candidates for the CSE.

The Court held that the UPSC was justified in rejecting the candidates' claim for EWS quota for not submitting the requisite certificates before the prescribed cut off date in the specified format.

A bench comprising Justices JK Maheshwari and Justice K.V. Viswanathan, which had reserved the judgment on September 5, further held that the Civil Service Examination Rules 2022 have the force of law and upheld the constitutionality of the rules.

Justice Viswanathan, who read out the operative portion of judgment, stated that the candidates claiming benefit of EWS category for the purpose of CSE 2022 acquire the eligibility only if they meet the criterion prescribed by the Central Government in the Office Memorandums dated 19.01.2019 and 31.01.2019 and are in possession of required income and asset certificates based on the year 2020-21.

Moreover, in accordance with the CSE Rules, it is essential for candidates to possess income and asset certificates dated as of February 22, 2022. Failure to provide these certificates in the specified format will disqualify candidates from claiming eligibility under the EWS category. Additionally, during the DAF-1 stage, candidates must submit the required documents online, in the prescribed format, based on their status as of February 22, 2022, before the specified deadline.

The bench also concluded that the UPSC was well within its rights to establish both the document format and the cutoff date for document uploads. We anticipate a more comprehensive judgment to be issued in due course.

The petitioners challenged UPSC's decision to treat them as General category candidates post-results. The petitioners contended that this action was arbitrary and violated Articles 14, 16, and 21 of the Constitution.

The petitioners claimed that they had timely submitted the necessary income and asset certificate for the fiscal year 2020-21, adhering to the guidelines provided by the respondent, and this submission was made well before the prescribed deadline of February 22, 2022.

This year in Janurary,, the respondent informed them that their EWS certificates incorrectly mentioned the year 2021-22. They were advised to submit the original certificate with the correct financial year, 2020-21, during the interview.

Subsequently, a clarification was issued by the competent authority, acknowledging a clerical error in the certificate and confirming that it should be interpreted as pertaining to the Financial Year 2020-21. The petitioners submitted their certificates with this clarification during the interview process, but ultimately, they were not selected in the final results.

Case title: Divya v. Union of India| Vimlok Tiwari v. UPSC| Ved Prakash Singh v. UPSC