More than 4.8 lakh Students Appeared for the Preliminary UPSC Examination this Year
In a relief to thousands of civil service aspirants, candidates
for the Union Public Service Commission main examination can now give their personality
test interview in a language different from the one they choose for the written
paper. English will no longer be the mandatory medium for the interview, even if
the examination is written in that language.
In a nation where joining the civil services is still considered a big deal, more
than 4.8 lakh students appeared for the preliminary UPSC examination this year.
The results are expected around August after which the main examination is likely
to be held at the year end, in which the candidates list is expected to be whittled
down to approximately 13,000. The list of vacancies would be a fraction at about
1,000 going by the 2010 figures where only the most deserving will get selected.
But starting next year, the personality test interviews will be much easier and
a relaxed affair. They can even give the test in their mother tongue, if it figures
in one of the languages in the eighth schedule.
UPSC under Secretary M. Mukhopadhyay on Thursday 23rd June, informed the Bombay
High Court of the far reaching recommendations made by an expert committee and accepted
by the commission. Accordingly, candidates who opt for an Indian language (other
than Hindi) for the written part of the exam will be allowed to choose the same
language or English or Hindi as the medium for the interview. Similarly, the UPSC
affidavit submitted by its counsel, Rui Rodrigues, also said that from now on, candidates
opting to write the civil services (main) paper in English may be given the option
to be interviewed either in English or Hindi or any other Indian language opted
by them for the compulsory Indian language paper in the written part.
However, those candidates who are exempt from the compulsory Indian language paper
will have to appear for the interview in English or Hindi only. The decision is
a step in ruling out injustice and towards creating a level playing field for scores
of candidates across India since English is not a native language and regional languages
are the primary medium of instruction in scores of schools.
The expert committee headed by Pprofessor B. B. Bhattacharya, ex-vice chancellor,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, was set up after Chittranjan Kumar, a 2008 candidate,
had filed a public interest litigation last year questioning what he said was an
existing draconian rule that required a person writing the UPSC exam in English
to also take the interview in the same language.
On Thursday 23rd June 2011, after taking the commission's affidavit on record and
approving its action, the HC bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice G S Godbole
disposed of the PIL. The department of personal training of the Indian government
has been informed of the changes and soon the detailed application form for the
civil services (main) examination will be appropriately modified to ease things
for candidates who come from a cross-section of India's varied socio-economic sector
determined to crack the civil services code.
The PIL had questioned the fairness of continuing with English as the
language for the interview when what was being tested was his or her personality
not language skills.
Courtesy: Times of India
