After 9 Failed Attempts, Gujarat High Court Rejects UPSC Aspirant's Belated Challenge To Scribe System For 'Compensatory Attempt'

The Gujarat High Court dismissed a man's plea against alleged in-built flaws in the procedure for availing scribe facility for the UPSC Civil Services Exam, after noting that the petitioner had continued to appear in the exam, exhausted the maximum number of attempts and after being unsuccessful in all of them, could not question the procedure any longer.The petitioner, who appeared in person, had availed the maximum number of attempts– 9 in number, for appearing in the UPSC Civil Services Examination. He filed a plea questioning the procedure for appearing in the UPSC examination by physically disabled candidates who would be availing the services of a 'Scribe'.He sought a direction on the Department of Personnel and Training (Union of India) to grant him one compensatory attempt in the Civil Services Examination.Justice Nirzar S Desai in his order noted that though, the petitioner argued the matter for almost 30 minutes, he was not in a position to convince the Court that if, the system or the procedure was incomplete and faulty, then why did the petitioner continue to appear in the UPSC examination and availed maximum number attempts where he could not succeed and clear the said examination even once. "When this Court put a specific query to the party-inperson, whether, during all these nine attempts, when the party-in-person appeared in the UPSC examination, was there any change in the system or the procedure for appearing in UPSC examination through scribe and the party-in-person was honest enough to state that the system or the procedure for appearing in UPSC examination through scribe has never been changed and the same has continued all these years," the court said. The Court then asked the petitioner who had said that he is visually impaired, whether he had ever thought of availing the services of a scribe. To this the order notes, the petitioner said that "all throughout, i.e. during nine attempts, he never availed services of a scribe". He submitted that it was his own decision to not avail services of a scribe and said that the earlier system of allowing scribe was faulty one had resulted into a failure in providing equal level playing filed amongst the persons with physical disability. He claimed that a person who cleared the examination after availing services of a scribe, such success was based on a system which has in-built flaws and so now is the time to change the same. The petitioner pointed to a memorandum issued through the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), dated 01.08.2025 as per which the entire methodology and the qualification of the scribe, i.e. who can appear as a scribe on behalf of a disabled person, is changed. However these guidelines are kept in abeyance, at-least till the next UPSC examination is conducted and at present the same faulty system continues, the petitioner said. "In this background, this Court considered the reliefs prayed for in this petition, which are already reproduced herein above, so also the fact that the party-in-person has already availed maximum number of attempts for appearing in UPSC examination, i.e. total nine in numbers, as visually impaired, PwBD-2) candidate and the party-in-person could not clear the UPSC examination even for once and now, he has reached maximum permissible age limit of 39 years and he is no more eligible to appear in UPSC examination.Therefore, when the petitioner continued to appear in UPSC examination with in-built fault in procedure for availing services of a scribe and when he could not clear the exam even on a single occasion now, it would not be open to the party-in-person to question the procedure. Further, after appearing in UPSC examination for the first or the second time or at-least, having realized that there is a fault in providing the services of a scribe in UPSC examination, he could have challenged the same, but, he didn't do so. In fact, the party-in-person seems to be espousing an agenda , rather than trying to make out a case for himself," the court said. The court further observed that the petitioner was declared unsuccessful in the exam and had no more attempts left to appear in the CSE. After considering the nature of reliefs prayed for in his petition, the court said it seemed that the petitioner was more interested in overhauling the entire system. The court noted that the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) had issued a memorandum last year already, which has taken care of the faults or lacunae, which according to the Respondents were there in the system."Therefore, at this juncture, I do not propose to entertain this petition, simply for the reason that the party-in-person has failed in the UPSC examination and he has also availed maximum number of attempts permissible for appearing in UPSC examination ...

After 9 Failed Attempts, Gujarat High Court Rejects UPSC Aspirant's Belated Challenge To Scribe System For 'Compensatory Attempt'

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