Civil Services foundation course on hold as candidates wait for word from Centre

The 958 candidates recommended by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in the 2025 Civil Services Examination (CSE) are now in limbo over their service allocation and the starting date of their foundation course. While the course was expected to begin in August, several candidates told The Hindu they have received no communication regarding the way forward.

The delay follows the Centre’s application to the Supreme Court asking permission for the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to allocate services without implementing the court’s March 11 Rohith Nathan judgment. That ruling found the DoPT was incorrectly excluding certain Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates from reservations by concluding they belonged to the creamy layer based only on their parents’ salary income. The court directed corrective measures within six months. The CSE 2025 results were declared on March 6, days before the Rohith Nathan judgment.

Candidate uncertainty

Now, while the Supreme Court is set to hear the Centre on September 17, candidates recommended for the Civil Services told The Hindu they have “no idea” what their future pathway looks like.

One candidate said, “The foundation course has obviously not started. I have received no communication from the DoPT or the academy about when the foundation course will start. There was a schedule that said it was to start on August 24 tentatively, but since the Supreme Court became seized of the matter, we have not heard anything”.

Another candidate said that they have not been able to see any updates regarding the next steps on the website of the DoPT or the website of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, where they will be trained.

A third candidate said that they are now waiting to see how the next hearing in the Supreme Court goes. “I believe the government is also waiting for the Supreme Court,” the candidate said, adding that since the court is going to look at the issue of service allocation, no news of the foundation course can be expected until then.

Income test issue

The Centre’s application to the Supreme Court said it would be unfair and “against the principles of natural justice” if the judgment’s reading of the income test is applied to the service allocation for the CSE 2025 batch, because it would affect anyone who did not apply or could not qualify under the OBC category based on the pre-Rohith Nathan understanding of the income test.

It further said that the CSE 2025 batch was expected to start their foundation course by August-end and continue service allocation based on the pre-Rohith Nathan understanding of the income test, which the Supreme Court ruling had described as a practice of “hostile discrimination”.