UPSC candidates move SC over list

12 candidates of the UPSC ’s CSE-2007 have approached the SC to restrain the Commission from issuing appointment letters to OBC candidates, reports Bhadra Sinha.

Twelve successful candidates of the UPSC’s Civil Services Examination (CSE)-2007 have approached the Supreme Court in a bid to restrain the Commission from issuing appointment letters to 96 candidates from the Other Backward Category (OBC) in the reserved category even as they have qualified the entrance exam under the general list.

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The petitioners, also belonging to the OBC, have claimed that by including the 96 candidates in the reserved list, the UPSC has denied them the opportunity to make it to the merit list of IAS officers. According to the petitioners, the 96 incumbents should have been included in the general list as they took the exams under that category.

Turning down the plea to restrain the Commission from issuing appointment letters before the next date of hearing, Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan fixed an early date to hear the petition. The case will be heard on July 18 on urgent basis.

The petition was mentioned by senior advocate KTS Tulsi, who urged the court to quash the second provisional list published by UPSC on June 26 in which the names of 96 reserved category candidates, selected under relaxed standards, were deleted and were kept in the reserved category list.

The UPSC’s revised list for the 2007 CSE was published after the Supreme Court on May 19 had stayed the order of Madras High Court that had set aside the Commission’s merit list related to the 2005 exams.