Writ petition seeks postponement of 50th BCS preliminary exam

A writ petition was filed with the High Court today seeking its order on the authorities concerned to postponed the 50th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) preliminary examination scheduled for January 30.

Enamul Haque and three other candidates submitted the petition to the relevant bench of the High Court through lawyer Nazmus Sakib, seeking a fresh date after the national election and referendum on February 12.

In the writ petition, the petitioners sought a rule asking the authorities to explain why the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) failure to dispose of a representation submitted on January 20 regarding postponement of the preliminary examination should not be declared unlawful and without legal authority.

They also sought a stay on the PSC circular issued on November 26 that fixed January 30 as the date for the 50th BCS preliminary examination, pending disposal of the rule.

On January 20, Enamul Haque and a group of job aspirants submitted a memorandum to the PSC chairman, demanding that all examinations be postponed during the election period to facilitate election campaigning.

As no response was received, the four candidates filed the writ petition.

The respondents in the writ petition include the secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, the chairman and secretary of the PSC, the controller of examinations, and the chief election commissioner (CEC).

A total of 290,951 candidates reportedly have applied for the 50th BCS examination.

The recruitment process aims to appoint 2,150 candidates to cadre and non-cadre posts. Of the 1,755 cadre positions, up to 650 are for the health cadre, 200 for the administration cadre, and 117 for the police cadre.

Among the 395 non-cadre posts, 71 are in ninth-grade positions.