SC appoints amicus to examine plea on disclosure of answer keys, marks of civil service exam

Supreme Court appoints amicus curiae to assist civil service aspirants seeking disclosure of UPSC exam details.

The Supreme Court has appointed an amicus curiae to assist it on a plea of civil service aspirants, seeking direction to the UPSC for disclosure of the answer keys, cut-off marks and marks of the candidates appearing in civil service (preliminary) examination.

The UPSC in almost all the previous examinations, including the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination of 2023, has maintained that the marks, cut off marks and the answer keys shall be disclosed "only" after the entire process of exam is over.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra appointed senior advocate Jaideep Gupta as amicus curiae to assist it in the matter and asked the petitioners to serve a copy of the petition on him.

"We have requested Jaideep Gupta, senior advocate present in the court to assist the court as amicus curiae in this matter which request Mr Gupta has graciously accepted," it said in its order of January 15.

During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for 17 UPSC aspirants, said the UPSC's conduct in not disclosing the details lacks transparency.

He said if the answer keys, cut-off marks and marks of the candidates/aspirants are disclosed, they would be entitled to avail "effective" remedies against wrong and incorrect evaluation on rational and demonstrable basis.

The top court also asked the Centre and the UPSC to file an additional affidavit explaining the difficulties that the institution(s) may face, if the prayers in the writ petition are accepted with the necessary data available.