SC allows people with disabilities to opt for the IPS provisionally

The petitioner, a non-profit called National Platform for Rights of the Disabled, told the court that the option to exercise the choice of joining the IPS and other central police services for this selection cycle expired on Thursday.

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed physically challenged candidates who have cleared the civil services exam to provisionally opt for the Indian Police Service, the Railway Protection Force, and the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Service (Danips), after a petition filed by a disabled rights organisation challenged a rule that denied them entry into the country’s elite police forces.

The petitioner, a non-profit called National Platform for Rights of the Disabled, told the court that the option to exercise the choice of joining the IPS and other central police services for this selection cycle expired on Thursday.

“We direct the secretary general of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to accept hard copies of applications from the concerned candidates, such as the petitioner and similarly placed persons, if submitted physically or through courier on or before April 1 in the office of the secretary general, Union Public Service Commission before 4pm,” a bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and AS Oka said in their interim order.

The petitioner, a non-profit called National Platform for Rights of the Disabled, told the court that the option to exercise the choice of joining the IPS and other central police services for this selection cycle expired on Thursday. Its counsel, senior advocate Arvind Datar, therefore, proposed that the disabled candidates be allowed to apply for the time being, and these applications could be taken up for consideration subject to a final decision taken by the court.

The suggestion was accepted by Attorney General KK Venugopal, who appeared for the Centre and sought two weeks’ time to respond to the petition. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta also pointed out to the court that such an arrangement should not disturb the ongoing allocation process. “It is made clear that this order is not to interdict the ongoing selection process in any manner,” the bench held, and posted the matter for hearing on April 18.

Meanwhile, in a related matter, the Centre informed the top court that it was not possible to offer an additional attempt to those candidates who missed the Civil Service (main) examination in January due to Covid-19.

The Centre was responding to a petition filed by three candidates -- Arjit Shukla, Kartikaya Sharma and Shubham Jain -- who enrolled for the UPSC (Mains) examination 2021 conducted from January 7-16 but contracted Covid and could not attempt the papers either in full or in part.

UPSC filed an affidavit informing the court that an additional attempt cannot be provided to the petitioners as similar requests were received from several others placed in the same situation. This contention was backed by Centre, which filed an affidavit on Thursday saying: “The matter has been considered and it has not been found feasible to change the existing provisions regarding number of attempts and age-limit in respect of the civil services examination (CSE). Any relaxation in age limit and number of permissible attempts due to Covid-19 pandemic could lead to similar demands being made by the other category of candidates.”

The bench headed by justice Khanwilkar posted the matter for Monday to enable the petitioners to file a response to Centre’s affidavit. Presently, the existing age range for admission to CSE is 21 to 32 years with relaxation for certain categories of reserved candidates. General category candidates are permitted six attempts to clear the exam.