Central Administrative Tribunal Principal Bench, New Delhi O.A. No. 4567/2024 Reserved on:- 02.12.2025 Pronounced on:- 12.12.2025 Hon’ble Mr. Manish Garg, Member (J)

Hon’ble Dr. Anand S Khati, Member (A)

Bisen Anshul Kumar, Aged About 35 Years and 4 months, S/o Arun Kumar, R/o Teachers Colony, New Laxmi Nagar, Gondia, Maharashtra - 441614 ...Applicant (By Advocates: Mr. Shaileshwar Yadav with Ms. Radhika)

Versus

1. Union of India Department of Personnel & Training Through its Secretary, North Block, New Delhi 110001

2. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Through Its Secretary, Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi 110069 …Respondent (By Advocates: Mr. S M Arif with

ANKIT SAKLANI Ms. Shabnam Perween,

Mr. R V Sinha with

Ms. Shriya Sharma)

ORDER Hon’ble Mr. Manish Garg, Member (J)

By way of the present O.A. the applicant seeks the following reliefs:-

"a) Allow the present Original Application and quash the office order dated 30.08.2024 issued by the Respondent No. 2; and b) Allow the present Original Application and quash the Press Note dated 22.06.2022 issued by the Respondent No. 2; and c) Direct the Respondent No. 2 to form an independent expert committee to evaluate official answer key particularly answer no 88 and no 96 of Series C answer key and if found to be erroneous then allow the Applicant herein with a compensatory attempt to appear in UPSC Forest Service Examination 2024 Mains;

and/or d) Direct the Respondent No. 2 to form an independent expert committee to evaluate official answer key particularly answer no 88 and no 96 of Series C answer key and if found to be erroneous then quash the official answer key published by the Respondent No. 2 to the extent it is erroneous; and/or e) Allow the present Original Application and direct the Respondent No. 2 to form an independent expert committee to evaluate official answer key particularly answer no 88 and no 96 of Series C answer key and if found to be erroneous then allow the Applicant herein with a compensatory attempt to appear in UPSC Forest Service Examination afresh; and/or f) Allow the Applicant to appear in UPSC Forest Service Examination 2025 afresh by relaxing the conditions for age and attempt; and/or g) Allow the present application and direct the Respondent No.2 to conduct re-examination for the Applicant; and/or h) Issue any direction or order as deemed fit by this

Hon’ble Tribunal in the facts and circumstances of the

2. Highlighting the facts of the case, learned counsel for the applicant submitted that the applicant, an OBC-NCL candidate and a meritorious aspirant who had earlier qualified multiple stages of the UPSC Civil Services Examination, appeared in his last attempt for the UPSC Forest Service (Prelims) Examination, 2022.

2.1. The applicant was wrongfully disqualified from the Mains stage due to errors in the official answer key, specifically in Questions 88 and 96 of General Studies Paper-I (Series C), which, according to settled jurisprudence of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Kanpur University v. Samir Gupta 1983 SCC (4) 309 and Rajesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2013) 4 SCC 690, were demonstrably incorrect and therefore liable to judicial review.

2.2. Learned counsel submitted that upon obtaining his answer script under RTI and tallying it with the answer key published after completion of the entire selection process, the applicant detected these discrepancies and immediately filed a detailed representation dated 31.08.2023, which remained unaddressed. Though this ANKIT Tribunal in O.A. No. 2127/2024 directed the UPSC to

decide the representation by a speaking order, the

respondent rejected it mechanically on 30.08.2024

without examining the substance of the applicant’s grievance.

2.3. It was further submitted that UPSC itself had granted compensatory attempts to similarly placed candidates in 2015, and therefore the present O.A. is filed seeking a compensatory attempt in the UPSC Forest Service Examination, 2024 and consequential reliefs.

2.4 Learned counsel for