The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission’s mains examinations will roll out as scheduled on September 28 and 29—but with a judicial caveat: no results until further orders.
A Division Bench of Justices Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Anish Gupta overturned Thursday’s decision of a single judge that had abruptly halted the exams. The Bench, while letting the process move forward, made it clear that the outcome of the exams must remain under wraps until October, when the case comes up again.
The dispute stems from recruitment to coveted government posts such as Assistant Engineer, District Horticulture Officer, Food Processing Officer, and Senior Technical Assistant. Candidates had taken issue with the preliminary exam list, released in May, which included only about 12 times the number of posts advertised—7,358 names for 609 posts—despite the recruitment notice promising a pool 15 times larger.
Adding to the friction, reserved category aspirants argued they were unfairly denied placement in the open category despite scoring higher than several general category candidates. The single judge who first heard the case agreed with them, ruling that reserved category candidates with higher marks must be considered in the open pool. That judgment ordered a redraw of the preliminary merit list before the mains could be held.
It was this order that landed before the Division Bench, which pressed pause on the merit-list rewrite and gave the green light for the exams to proceed. The only string attached: answer sheets may be checked, but the curtain on results won’t rise until the court decides what comes next.