The officials from the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) have stated that the UPSC Civil Services Exams (CSE) Prelims which was slated to take place on May 31 this year has been deferred owing to COVID- 19 pandemic. The new dates for the same would be announced by the officials of UPSC later on this month.
The UPSC conducts CSE in order to select officers for the prestigious services such as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) among others. The exam is conducted every year at a number of centres across the country. It has three stages: Prelims, Mains, and Interview. Every year more than 10 lakhs eligible students apply for this exam in order to be part of the prestigious services.
When the official notification for this exam was out in January this year, the UPSC officials had announced 796 vacancies among various cadres. The Prelims exam was supposed to take place on May 31, 2020.
Owing to COVID- 19 fears and lockdown imposed due to the same, several students had written to the UPSC in order to defer the exam. The officials met this Monday where they reviewed the situation due to ongoing lockdown. An official from the UPSC while speaking to the media stated that as the restrictions have been extended again, they took notice of this situation and came to this conclusion that they can’t go ahead with the CSE 2020 Prelims exams and CSE 2019 Interview.
The officials will be reviewing the situation again on May 20, 2020 and in due course of time, they will announce the new dates for the CSE Prelims 2020. The information will also be available on the official website of the UPSC which is www.upsc.nic.in. Whenever the new dates for the deferred exams or tests will be announced, the UPSC will ensure that the candidates get a notice of a minimum of 30 days.
Earlier, the UPSC had already announced postponement of other prestigious exams conducted by it such as NDA & Naval Academy Examination, 2020; notification for the Indian Economic Service or Indian Statistical Service examination, 2020; notification for the Combined Medical Services Examination; and Personality test for remaining candidates for the civil services examination, 2019.