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The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has informed the Supreme Court through an affidavit that it will release the provisional answer key of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination soon after the test, rather than waiting until the entire exam cycle is completed.
The move comes in response to a petition challenging the Commission's earlier practice of withholding the answer key until the final stage of the Civil Services Examination. The affidavit marks a notable departure from UPSC's longstanding stance, as in previous years, including the 2023 prelims, it maintained that marks, cut-off scores, and answer keys would be disclosed only after the completion of the full recruitment process. For years, the demand for greater transparency has echoed across various platforms. Recommendations from Parliamentary Committees and directions from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) had repeatedly urged UPSC to publish the answer key of the preliminary examination along with the prelims results. Yet, these recommendations went unheeded. It was only after persistent legal battles by civil service aspirants Vidushi Pandey and Himanshu Kumar, who challenged this opacity over the past two years, that UPSC finally conceded. Their petition sought timely disclosure of answer keys, cut-off marks, and candidates' scores, arguing that the lack of transparency disadvantaged aspirants. During the hearing earlier, a bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra appointed senior advocate Jaideep Gupta as amicus curiae to assist in the matter. The Court also directed the petitioners to provide Gupta with a copy of the petition. The decision to release provisional answer keys soon after the prelims is expected to benefit lakhs of aspirants who appear for the highly competitive examination every year. It will allow candidates to verify their performance in real time and hold the Commission accountable to higher standards of transparency. (ANI)
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