Revised date for UPSC Civil Services prelims to be announced this week - prelims date updated

The Union Public Service Commission holds the prelims examination for Civil Services every year around May-June. This year, owing to the COIVD-19 pandemic, there has been a delay in the conduct of this exam. Moreover, the UPSC Civil Services Personality Test 2019 which was scheduled to be conducted from March 23, was also deferred until further notice. The UPSC Civil Service examination is conducted in three stages - Prelims, Mains, and Personality Test. Nearly 10 lakh aspirants register for the nationwide competitive examination.

After a review, on June 5, the revised date for the UPSC Civil Services Prelims Examination was announced as October 4, 2020.

The official website of UPSC after the first lockdown said “The Civil Services (Prelims) Examination 2020, scheduled to be held on May 31, 2020, stands deferred. The decision on the fresh date of the examination will be made available on May 20 after assessing the situation.” Therefore, it came as a sigh of relief when the Commission announced on June 2, that the new examination date for UPSC Civil Services Prelims’20 should be expected this week.

The candidates go through a rigorous period of preparation for the same. So naturally, it was understandable when the postponing of the date for the 2020 Prelims examination until further notice, caused a lot of ambiguity amongst the aspirants as well as the commission. There was no clarity whether there would be any decision taken with regard to this with certainty, at least, in the near future.

The Commission went on to mention that to provide some clarity to the aspirants with regard to the examinations, a revised schedule of the same will be issued in the next meeting to be held on June 5, 2020. In the June 5 update, the revised dates for the other examinations affiliated to UPSC such as Indian Forest Services, NDA/NA, CMS, IES/ISS, and CAPF were also issued.

This news comes after the press release on May 20 when the commission said that it will not be possible to resume examinations and interviews. However, after taking note of the recent relaxations announced by the Centre and some of the states, the decision to review the situation once again has been taken.

The UPSC CSE is the single largest competitive examination of the country to recruit officers for the Indian Administrative Services. It is a year-long process that begins around June and ends in May. Hence, the delay in the Prelims examination would mean a further delay in the next stages of selection. Needless to say, this is keeping the candidates on their toes. The commission’s announcement of declaring the new dates this week will perhaps put their minds at some ease.

UPDATE: After review, the revised date for the UPSC CSE prelims will be October 4, 2020

The UPSC revised programme of examinations and recruitment tests - 2020 can be checked here.