SC dismisses plea seeking direction to UPSC to publish answer key of Prelims 2023

Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed as withdrawn a plea challenging the decision of UPSC to publish the answer key of the Prelims of Civil Services Examination 2023 only after declaration of the final result

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed as withdrawn a plea challenging the decision of Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) to publish the answer key of the Prelims of Civil Services Examination 2023 only after declaration of the final result.

A bench comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol permitted taking back of the plea and dismissed it as withdrawn in view of the pendency of a similar plea before the Delhi High Court. On August 2, the High Court had reserved its judgement on the maintainability of a similar plea filed by 17 civil service aspirants.

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The plea, which sought direction for the UPSC to publish the answer key with immediate effect, said that the decision not to make the answer key available to the candidates is “arbitrary”. The High Court had called UPSC to file its preliminary objections on the plea. It recorded the statement that the other two prayers in the petition — challenging the preliminary examination and to re-conduct the exam — are not being pressed in the matter by the petitioners.

A press note issued by the UPSC on June 12 said that “candidates are also informed that marks, cut off marks and answer keys of CS (P) Examination, 2023 will be uploaded only after the entire process of the Civil Services Examination 2023 is over, that is, after the declaration of final result”.