CAT Issues Notice to UPSC Over Disputed Prelims Questions, Adds to India's Deepening Exam Crisis

New Delhi: The Central Administrative Tribunal has issued a notice to the UPSC after aspirants challenged eight questions in the May 24 prelims paper as factually inaccurate, adding to a season of examination controversies that has fuelled protests nationwide over NEET, NET and state recruitment tests.

The UPSC must respond before the next hearing on October 8, with the notice landing just days ahead of the Mains exam, set for August 21-30. Four candidates who missed the cut-off approached CAT on July 27, alleging errors in General Studies Paper-I could have cost them up to 16 marks — potentially enough to have altered their results.

This is the first year UPSC released provisional answer keys before the Mains, following a Supreme Court directive. Earlier, such keys were published only after the full exam cycle ended.

The petition claims the answer keys, when checked against government records and authoritative sources, showed factual inaccuracies and in some cases no sustainable correct option — including Question 96 on aviation insurance, where the listed options allegedly contradict established source material.

Part of a wider pattern of examination failures

The UPSC row lands amid a broader crisis of confidence in India's examination and recruitment systems, one that has repeatedly spilled onto the streets over the past several months. The NEET medical entrance exam has faced sustained allegations of paper leaks and irregularities, triggering youth-led protests that drew tens of thousands to Delhi's Jantar Mantar and prompted a Supreme Court-ordered probe into police conduct during the demonstrations. The UGC-NET exam has similarly come under fire over integrity concerns in recent examination cycles.

Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, students have been protesting for over three weeks against alleged irregularities in JPSC and JSSC recruitment examinations, demanding the cancellation of multiple tests and an independent CBI-led investigation — a stir that has seen hunger strikes, police clashes, and a state-wide bandh, forcing government to cancel 44 examinations.

Taken together, the UPSC prelims controversy adds to a mounting pattern: from national-level medical and eligibility exams to state recruitment tests, India's examination bodies are facing intensifying scrutiny over accuracy, transparency and accountability — with aspirants increasingly turning to tribunals, courts and street protests to demand answers.