The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine the plea by some aspirants seeking postponement of the upcoming civil services exams by two-three months in view of the spiralling Covid-19 cases in the country.

A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna, while adjourning the matter to September 28, asked the counsel for petitioner Vasireddy Govardhana Sai Prakash to serve a copy of the petition to the Centre and the Union Public Service Commission.

The court, however, refrained from either issuing notice or any interim directions like stay on the exams as sought by the students.

“Liberty is granted to serve advance copy on the Standing Counsel for the Union Public Service Commission as well as on the Standing Counsel for the Central Agency representing Union of India through email/online. List the matter on 28.09.2020,” the bench said in its order.

An estimated 6 lakh students would be taking the UPSC exam scheduled on October 4 in over 72 centres in different parts of the country.

The petitioners have contended that the UPSC and the authorities had decided to proceed with the exams in an “arbitrary” and “whimsical” manner in utter disregard of the rising number of Covid-19 cases, thus ignoring the safety and health of the 6 lakh-odd aspirants.

According to the candidates, making them write the exams being conducted in an offline mode has made lakhs of students vulnerable to get affected by the pandemic and cause a threat to their lives, which they said was a violation of their fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 (right to life and liberty).

Besides, it was argued that in several other parts of the country the flood situation would make it difficult for the students to take the exams scheduled for October 4.

Hence, they pleaded that the exams be postponed by two-three months as by that time the pandemic situation may stabilise in the country.