The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Centre time till January 22 to take a decision on the plea for conduct of a second round of civil services exams to those candidates who could not appear on October 4 due to Covid-19 related problems.

“See that you take a decision before the last date for filling the forms are over…” Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, heading a three judge bench, told additional solicitor-general S.V. Raju during a brief hearing.

The bench, also comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Krishna Murari, adjourned the matter till January 22 to enable Raju to seek instructions from the Union Public Service Commission on the issue but declined his plea for hearing the matter in the first or second week of February.

At the last hearing on December 18, solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, who had appeared in the matter, told the court that the UPSC was in the process of examining the plea and the government was viewing it in a positive manner.