Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Postponement of UPSC ESE 2021

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking for the postponement of the UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE), 2021 in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and V. Ramasubramanian refused to entertain the plea, stating that it was not the job of the Court to decide when examinations would be held.

Justice Banerjee remarked, "There is no fundamental right to seek an exam to be conducted on a particular date", and stated that the matter could not be entertained.

Advocate Vikram Hegde, appearing for the Petitioners, submitted that many States were in a lockdown phase and it would be difficult for candidates coming from far-flung areas to appear in the examination. Further, female candidates would face problems pertaining to booking hotels etc.

To this, the Court replied that it would be the duty of the authorities to consider the same.

Accordingly, the petition was dismissed.