Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 21: The Supreme Court on Friday has turned down a petition seeking to have the Final Selection List quashed. The CSE 2020 test was cancelled due to an alleged breach of the 50% reservation cap.
Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice BR Gavai were on the bench that refused to hear the case. The EWS quota was introduced by a Constitutional Amendment, according to the Bench, and its validity is only addressed to a larger bench.
Nitish Shankar, a CSE 2020 aspirant, filed a UPSC Civil Services related petition. The debate focused on the EWS reservation vs. the General category. The petitioner claimed that by introducing EWS quota, UPSC had violated the 50 percent reserve ceiling.
This is because, according to reports, the reservation had increased to 60%, leaving only 40% of seats for candidates in the General category. Further, the petitioner claimed that due to this reservation, a greater number of candidates were recruited under the reserved category rather than the general category, hence eroding merit in the IAS test.
The debate over the UPSC Civil Services 2020 exam did not end with this appeal. When the petitioner’s attorney refused to listen to the Apex Court’s observations, the Court threatened to dismiss the case at a cost. Following this, the IAS exam petition was dismissed, but the petitioner was given the opportunity to appeal to the High Court.
Notably, the UPSC Civil Services Mains test was recently completed in January 2022. Even still, many candidates had petitioned the Delhi High Court to have the exam postponed. It was eventually denied, and the exam proceeded as planned.
