gave Union Public Service Commission The Center said in the Rajya Sabha that it has laid down guidelines for releasing the provisional answer key on its website after the conduct of the civil services preliminary examination.Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts an annual civil services examination in three stages – preliminary, main and interview – to select officers. Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha that in compliance with the Supreme Court’s judgment, UPSC has laid down guidelines for releasing the provisional answer key on its official website after the preliminary examination.The process, which will be implemented from the 2026 Civil Services (Preliminary) examination, will be applicable to all structured examinations conducted by the UPSC, Singh said.“The preliminary exam marks will be released only after the declaration of the final results,” the minister said.He said that to ensure a level playing field in optional subjects, UPSC applies inter-subject moderation to ensure that no candidate, irrespective of the optional subject chosen, is put at any disadvantage.Singh said detailed information about the process involved in moderation/evaluation of traditional/detailed answer scripts can be found on the UPSC website.The minister was replying to a question seeking details of the steps taken to standardize the difficulty level in optional subjects and the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) paper.“CSAT is a qualifying paper aimed at ensuring minimum standards of quality and analytical ability. The level of questions is equivalent to matric level,” he said.To challenge factual errors, UPSC has a dedicated platform called ‘Question Paper Representation Portal’ (QPRep), accessible on its website, Singh said.Candidates can point out discrepancies in the question paper and provisional answer keys from 2026 through the portal, he said.UPSC also deals with complaints submitted by candidates through the Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) and emails, the minister said.CPGRAMS allows citizens to raise online complaints against government departments. PTI
