The cut-off date for obtaining EWS certificates in the Civil Services Examination (CSE) is not arbitrary and can be extended in light of the difficulties faced by candidates in obtaining the certificates, but such extension must be reasonable and should not disrupt the examination process.

JUDGMENT

Talwant Singh, J. - In all these writ petitions, the petitioners have challenged the order of learned Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) dated 13th January, 2020 in a batch of Original Applications (OAs) filed by candidates belonging to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of society attempting the Civil Services Examination-2019 (CSE-2019). The UPSC and Union of India, who are the petitioners in W.P.(C) No.1158/2020 and W.P.(C) No.4623/2020 respectively,were the respondents before the CAT; and the respondents in these two writ petitions as well as the petitioners in the other writ petitions bearing W.P.(C) Nos.701/2020, 1195/2020 and 1356/2020 were the original applicants before the CAT.

2. Broadly speaking, the present matters relate to theCSE-2019 and the applicants before CAT were the candidates for the said examination belonging to EWS category. It is to be noticed here that for the first time in the history of India, reservation for the EWS category was provided in the CSE examination, on the basis of the Constitution (103rd) Amendment. The provision for reservation was notified vide OM dated 31st January, 2019 and the notification for holding CSE-2019 was issued on 19th February, 2019, on the basis of the Rules framed by Department of Personnel & Training (DoP&T) which were published on the same day, i.e., 19th February, 2019. The detailed Rules provide forthe scheme of examination, the qualification which the candidates should possess and the important dates in relation to the preliminary examination, main examination and interview etc. as well as the different stages at which the essential documents and their eligibility were to be submitted by the candidates. As per the Rules notified by DoP&Tand the notification issued by UPSC, all the candidates were required to possess the necessary documents to claim the exemptions/relaxations/educational qualification etc., on the last date of applying for preliminary examination, i.e., 18th March, 2019. However, in the case of candidates who had already appeared or were appearing in their final academic examination, the result should have been in the candidate''s possession before filling the Detailed Application Form-1 (DAF-1). Moreover, for candidates claiming EWS status, the UPSC noticed that the reservation was notified through Office Memorandumissued on 31st January, 2019;hence it was provided that the said candidates may obtain the necessary certificate in the prescribed format from the concerned authorities before 1st August, 2019 and the same was to be uploaded along withDAF-1. Broadly, all the applicants had approached the CAT with the grievance that, since the concerned authorities were not aware about the procedure to be followed for issuing the requisite EWS certificates, there were administrative difficulties, and resultantly they were unable to obtain the said EWS certificates, before the prescribed date i.e. 1 st August, 2019.

3. After hearing both the sides and on the basis of detailed arguments addressed by learned counsel appearing for the contestants, CAT was pleased to partially allow the OAs thereby extending the stipulated date till by which the candidates/applicants could have obtained the EWS certificate to the 16th August, 2019, being the last date to upload DAF-1. There was a class of candidates/applicants who could not obtain the said certificates even by 16th August, 2019 and, therefore, their prayer for extension of the last date for submission of EWS certificates, till the time of final scrutiny after the mains examination, was rejected by CAT. The operative paragraph of the impugned order dated 13th January, 2020 of the CAT is reproduced hereunder:

"32. For the foregoing reasons, we partly allow these OAs, directing that the UPSC shall treat the EWS certificates issued up to 16.08.2019 as valid, and accept the claims of such candidates. Necessary steps in this behalf shall be taken for the purpose of declaration of results. We further