Supreme Court today sent notice to the central government and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) with regard to a plea filed in the Court seeking for the postponement of the Civil Services preliminary exam, reports newindianexpress.com.

The plea urged the Commission to postpone the exam by 2 or 3 months due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and flood situation across the country.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna sent the notice to the Commission and the Centre. The matter will taken up again on September 28.

The petition was filed by Vasireddy Govardhana Sai Prakash and others which argued that the conduct of the exam amid such situation violates the rights of the candidates under Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution to practice their chosen profession/occupation of serving the public, adds the report.

The petition says, ‘Conducting the aforesaid examination across India at such perilous time, is nothing else but putting lives of lakhs of young students (including Petitioners herein) at utmost risk and danger of disease and death. Also, the natural calamities like flood, incessant rain, landslides etc. are likely to directly affect the life and health of the Petitioners and many similarly situated students.’

The petitioner also said that the conduct of the Civil Services exam is different than the conduct of academic exams as there is no question of loss of academic year. SC had previously given green light for the conduct of NEET UG and JEE exam in the month of September.

The petitioner also said that the Commission has not increased the number of exam centre whch will result in many candidates needing to travel 300-400 kilometres to give the exam. The low number of centres will increase the probability of candidates getting infected, adds the report.