No proposal to relax upper age limit for UPSC exam: Govt

New Delhi: There is no proposal to relax the upper age limit and the number of attempts for a candidate appearing in the civil service examinations conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the government said on Wednesday. Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy said some representations or references have been received from various quarters seeking relaxation in the upper age limit and the number of attempts, as prescribed in Civil Services Examination (CSE) Rules, 2013 consequent to format change in the exams.

In the revised scheme the overall number of papers to be taken by a candidate remains the same. The number of optional subjects has been reduced from two to only one thereby bringing down the number of papers from four to two and the number of papers for general studies has been increased from two to four, he said. "Thus, no additional stress is envisaged on the candidates on account of these changes. There is no proposal to relax fresh attempts and consequently relaxation in the upper age limit," Narayanasamy told Lok Sabha in a written reply. As per CSE Rules, 2013, a candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the upper age of 30 years may apply for the civil service examination to choose IAS, IPS and IFS among others. However, the upper age limit is relaxable upto a maximum of five years for candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe categories and upto a maximum of three years for candidates of OBC category among others.