The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to issue directions to the Centre and the UPSC to grant an extra attempt to aspirants, who exhausted their last attempt at the prestigious civil services exam in October last year. A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna said it was bound by its three-judge bench judgment passed in Rachna vs Union of India last year. "The petitioners have made an unsuccessful attempt of persuading us to take a view that the issue raised in the present writ petitions is not covered by the decision of three judge Bench of this Court dated February 24, 2021 in Rachna & Ors vs Union of India & Anr...," the bench said in its order.

According to the writ petitioners, they form a separate class - as they were forced not to appear in the examination on the given dates on account of directions issued by the local authorities under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, including the general directions regarding isolation of Covid patients and family members of Covid patients. The petitioners contended that the situation was one of forced default, for which they cannot be compared with candidates who did not appear in the examination by choice.