ADITYA KUMAR Vs. UPSC AND ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present appeal arises out of the impugned order dated 24th April, 2009.

(2.) THE grievance of the appellant (original petitioner in the writ petition) is that though SC/ST and OBC candidates are given much larger number of attempts at passing the UPSC examination for Indian Civil Services, the General category candidates are not entitled to more than four attempts. This, as per the appellant, is without any basis.

(3.) AS held by the Supreme Court in C.A. Rajendran v. Union of India : AIR 1968 SC 507, that Article 16(4) of the Constitution of India, like Article 14 of the Constitution of India permits of reasonable classification. It was also held in the same judgment that Clause (4) of Article 16 of the Constitution of India is an instance and elaboration of the principle of classification which is inherent in Clause (1) of Article 16 of the Constitution of India.