Delhi High Court notice to Centre, UPSC on plea seeking unlimited attempts in civil services exams for persons with disabilities

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notices to Central government, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on a public interest litigation petition seeking unlimited number of attempts to appear in Civil Services Examination for candidates belonging to Persons with Disability (PWD) category. (Evara Foundation v UOI and Ors)..The petition by NGO Evara Foundation also sought age relaxation up to 47 years to all categories of PwD irrespective of their reservation in vertical category. The Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued the notices and listed the case for further hearing on December 15. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of External Affairs,Ministry of Home Affairs and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) were also arraigned as parties to the case. The Court sought their responses as well.The petition placed reliance on the Supreme Ciurt judgment in Aryan Raj v Chandigarh Administration and Ors in which it was held that that persons with disabilities are socially backward therefore they are entitled to the same benefits of relaxation as Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates in public employment and education.“Therefore after pronouncement of above said judgement all persons with benchmarks disabilities irrespective of their vertical category or unreserved are entitled to unlimited number of attempts in Civil Services Examination 2021 at par with SC/ST Candidates and also the same age relaxation up to 4 7 years of age and not 42 years,” read the petition..The petition also challenged the exam notice for Civil Services Examination 2021 arguing that even though there should be 29 vacancies for the PwD candidates, only 22 vacancies have been advertised.“As per impugned advertisement, 712 vacancies are expected to be filled through the examination. The grievance of the petitioner is that the total number of reserved vacancies for PwBD should be 29 vacancies (not less than 4% of 712) for the current year excluding the backlog vacancies instead of the present 22 vacancies advertised under the impugned advertisement,” it was submitted..Though the petition sought a stay on the exams on the above mentioned ground, the Court refused to grant any interim relief.The petition also sought several other relief including a direction to the respondents to conduct an assessment of all the backlog vacancies since 1996 in all the services that are reserved for the people belonging to PwD category and fill up those backlog vacancies through the Civil Services Examinations.While advocate Pankaj Sinha appeared for the petitioners in the case, advocate Naresh Kaushik appeared for the UPSC, the other respondents were represented by advocate Gaurang Kanth.