New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the Centre on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking safeguards against the alleged misuse of the scribe facility in the Civil Services Examination by candidates with disabilities.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia sought responses from the UPSC, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and posted the matter for further hearing on September 16.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Rahul Bajaj submitted that the petition was directed against the UPSC’s existing qualification criteria for scribes. “We have challenged the scribe qualification requirements of the UPSC on the ground that the scribe’s qualification cannot be more than the minimum qualification of the candidate, which is graduation,” Bajaj told the Delhi High Court.
Questioning the maintainability of the plea as a PIL, the CJ Upadhyaya-led Bench observed: “How can it be a PIL? The affected candidate can move a petition.” In response, Bajaj argued that the existing framework “is resulting in an unequal playing field.” The Delhi High Court thereafter issued notice on the petition.
Filed by Deepstambh Foundation, the PIL seeks directions to the UPSC to disallow the services of any scribe who has previously appeared in the Civil Services Examination at any stage and to bar the use of scribes affiliated with UPSC coaching centres. It also seeks a direction requiring every scribe to furnish an undertaking that they have neither previously appeared in the Civil Services Examination nor been engaged in coaching civil services aspirants.
According to the plea, the UPSC notification permits candidates with benchmark disabilities, including blindness, low vision, locomotor disability and cerebral palsy, to avail the services of a scribe. It states that the qualification of the UPSC’s scribe or a candidate’s own scribe “will not be more than the minimum qualification criteria of the examination”, while requiring the scribe to be matriculate or above.
Since the minimum educational qualification for the Civil Services Examination is graduation, the petitioner contended that the present framework permits graduates who have themselves appeared in the examination or are associated with coaching institutes to act as scribes.
The petition alleged that some candidates engage scribes who are faculty members at UPSC coaching institutes or individuals who have appeared in the Civil Services Examination up to the Preliminary, Main or even Interview stage. “These scribes, being graduates, technically meet the Commission’s qualification criteria but provide an undue and unfair advantage that completely distorts the level playing field,” the plea said.
It further alleged that such scribes, owing to their familiarity with the examination pattern and answer-writing techniques, “subtly influence content, structure, and quality of responses”, effectively turning the examination into “a collaborative effort rather than an individual test of merit”. The PIL clarified that it does not seek to dilute the scribe facility available to persons with disabilities, but only seeks narrowly tailored safeguards to prevent its alleged misuse while preserving accessibility.
According to the petition, Deepstambh Foundation had submitted a representation to the UPSC on April 11, 2026, highlighting the alleged loophole and proposing corrective measures, but received no response, prompting the filing of the PIL.
(IANS)
