In a move that could help civil services aspirants, the Union Public Service Commission has allowed candidates to withdraw their applications in case they are not prepared for the exam. The move is significant as it will save the candidates from losing their one attempt — USPC has attempt limits for some examinations. However, the exam fees will not be refunded in such cases.

The move came after some of the candidates had wished to cancel their candidature as they were not prepared. Considering their requests, the Commission decided to introduce the facility of withdrawal of the application.

The commission has notified about the move in an examination notice for: Engineering Services Examination, 2019. The candidates can withdraw their applications a week after the deadline. There is no provision for withdrawing of incomplete applications.

Here are some important instructions to withdraw application:

The applicants are advised to provide the details of registered application with registration-id which was completed and submitted finally. Before making the request for withdrawal, the candidates must ensure that they have access to the registered mobile number and email-id which were provided by them at the time of submission of application.

Separate one-time-password will be sent by the Commission on the registered mobile number and email-id. Request for withdrawal will be accepted only after it is confirmed by validating the OTP details sent on the candidate’s mobile and email-id. Such OTPs will be valid for 30 minutes only.

If a candidate has submitted more than one application form then the higher registration-id of Application (latest) will be considered for withdrawal and all earlier applications will be treated as cancelled automatically.

After the final acceptance of the request for online withdrawal of the application, the candidate must print the authenticated receipt. Once the application has been withdrawn by the candidate, it cannot be revived in future.

UPSC has no provision to refund any fee amount paid by candidates, so in case of successful withdrawal of application, the fees will not be refunded.

On successful completion of withdrawal of the application, an auto-generated email and message will be sent on candidate’s registered email-id and mobile. In case any candidate has not submitted the request for withdrawal of application he/she may contact UPSC on email-id: upscsoap@nic.in immediately.