Civil Services Exam 2025: Madhya Pradesh High Court grants interim age relaxation to EWS candidates

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday passed an interim order permitting civil service candidates belonging to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) to fill forms for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam with an upper age limit relaxation of three years [Aaditya Narayan Pandey v Union Of India And Others]..The Division Bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain passed the order.The Court was dealing with a plea raising a grievance that no age relaxation was being given to the EWS candidates despite such relaxation being provided to other reserved categories, namely Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes (OBC), women, etc..When the matter was heard on February 14, the concerned government authorities sought time to file a response. The Court granted two weeks to file this response. .However, since the last date for filling out exam forms was approaching soon (February 18), the Court added that the UPSC must accept the applications of the EWS candidates and extend them an age relaxation benefit."Respondent No.3-Union Public Service Commission is directed to accept the application of the petitioner as well as all other similarly situated candidates for CSE-2025 without reference to the existing qualification or age, but subject to compliance of other conditions. The applications will be accepted on the aforesaid condition upto seven days from today and subject to further orders of this Court," the Court ordered.However, the Court clarified that appointment orders for such candidates shall not be issued without its permission. The matter will be heard after two weeks..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioner (an EWS candidate) had submitted that the Court recently issued a similar order in another case with regard to another examination. .The Court took note of this submission and passed a similar order for candidates taking the UPSC exam as well.Pertinently, the petitioner along with others had earlier approached the Supreme Court which refused to entertain the plea under Article 32 of the Constitution. The petitioners were granted liberty to approach the High Court at the time. The petitioner thereafter approached the High Court seeking an upper age limit relaxation of three years, similar to the relaxations granted to OBC candidates in the Central list, a lawyer appearing in the case said..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal with advocates Manish Singh, George Podhar, Sagar, Dr. Monika Singhal and Abhishek Gautam represented the petitioner. The plea was filed through advocates Dhruv Varma, Rohan Harne and Kartik Jaggi. Advocate Sandeep Shukla represented the Union of India. Advocate Suyash Mohan Guru represented the UPSC.[Read Order]