HC dismisses plea to change date for UPSC, FSSAI exams

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea for a change in the examination date either for the Civil Services (Mains) or for FSSAI recruitment, both scheduled on September 24, saying doing so at this belated stage will cause grave inconvenience and prejudice to other candidates.

The petitioner submitted that he has worked hard for the examinations and was desirous of appearing in both. If the date for one of the two examinations is not changed, he will have to forego the opportunity to appear in one of them.

The high court said that even though the petitioner may be justified in urging that on account of the date of both the examinations being the same, he will have to forgo the opportunity to appear in one of them, it cannot be a ground for directing any change in the date of the exams.

“Even otherwise, the date of September 24, 2022 for the Civil Services (Mains) examinations was announced at least two months ago and similarly the date for the examination for the post of Technical Officer and Central Food Safety Officer was made known to the candidates more than a month ago.

“There is no justification by the petitioner in approaching the court at this belated stage with barely three weeks left for the examinations when all arrangements for holding the examinations in a large number of centres all across the country have already been made by the respondents,” Justice Rekha Palli said in an order passed on September 2.

The high court said the authorities are justified in contending that any change in the date of examination at this belated stage will cause grave inconvenience and prejudice to the candidates as well.

“The petitioner will, therefore, have to make a choice as to which of the two examinations he wishes to appear,” it said, adding that there was no merit in the petition and dismissed it.

In his plea, the petitioner claimed to be a candidate for the Civil Services (Mains) Examination to be conducted by the Union Public Service Commission on September 24 as also for the examination for the post of Central Food Safety Officer and Technical Officer to be conducted by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on the same date.

He said either of the two authorities should be directed to change the date of the examinations to enable him to appear in both of them.

The counsel for the authorities opposed the plea, contending that all arrangements for the smooth conduct of the examinations at various centres across the country have already been made and any change in the date of examinations will lead to total administrative chaos.

They said grave inconvenience will be caused to a large number of candidates who have already been preparing to appear in these examinations for the last many months.