Civil service aspirants will from this year
onwards get a two-year age
extension and two
additional attempts beyond the existing stipulation, the government said on
Tuesday. The Centre recently approved two additional attempts for all
categories of candidates beginning with the Civil Services Examination, 2014,
and okayed the consequential age relaxation across the board.
Under the existing rules, an unreserved or
general category candidate is permitted a maximum of four attempts with the age
limit for such candidates to take the examination being 30 years. But from this year
onwards, unreserved category candidates will get six attempts until 32 years of age, the Ministry of
Personnel said in a statement on Tuesday.
There is no restriction on the number of
attempts by candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes
(STs). But the age limit for such
aspirants has now been extended by two years from 35 to 37 years, it said.
Till last year, the stipulation was for a
total of seven attempts and an age limit of 33 years for aspirants belonging to
Other Backward Classes (OBCs). But as
per the revised norms, an OBC candidate will now get nine attempts until 35 years of age.
Physically handicapped candidates in the
general and OBC categories will now be
eligible for nine attempts as against the seven at present. They will also
get age relaxations of 42 years for general and 45 years for OBC candidates.
There is no cap on the number of attempts by
physically handicapped candidates in the SC and ST categories while there will
be an age limit of 47 years for them as against the present 45 years, the
statement said.
The Civil Services Examination (Preliminary),
2014, is tentatively scheduled to be held on 24th August this year. The examination is conducted by the Union
Public Service Commission to select officers for the Indian Administrative
Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Foreign Service (IFS),
among others.