SC to hear Centre petition for Civil Services exams on May 19

New Delhi, May 16 (UNI) The Supreme Court will hear on May 19 a petition filed by the Centre challenging Madras High Court order declaring Rule 16(2) of Civil Services Examination Rules as null and void.

The Rule 16(2) of Civil Services Examination Rules permits SC, ST and OBC candidates to get selected in Civil Services from general category and allows them to take advantage of reserved category for getting the cadre of their own choice such as IAS, IFS and IPS.

The Central Government today mentioned its petition for urgent hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices H K Sema and P P Naolekar for urgent hearing as Civil Services Examination results are being delayed due to the judgement of the High Court dated March 20, 2008.

There are more than 20 categories of group A and B services popularly known as Civil Services namely IAS, IFS, IPS, and IRS.

The High Court had directed the Union Government and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to rework the allocation dehors rule 16(2) and treat the reserved category candidates, who got selected on merit from the general category, as general category candidate.

According to the petitioners in High Court, candidates belonging to reserved categories are permitted to take the advantage of their reserved category status even when they have got selected from general category on merit, to get the category of their choice such as IAS, IPS, IFS among others.

The Central government has prayed to the apex court to stay the impugned High Court judgement till the final disposal of this appeal so that results of civil services can be declared on time, otherwise the same will get delayed damaging the career prospects of the candidates who are going to be selected.

UNI SC BDP RP GC1651