IFS/IAS appointees cannot appear for Civil Services Examination 2026 again; IPS no longer available | IPS | India News

NEW DELHI: The move is aimed at regulating the conduct of repeated attempts by candidates selected for the Civil Service Examination (CSE) Industrial Automation AssociationIndian External Affairs Service (IFS) or IPS, the updated rules for the elite recruitment examination bar candidates who have been appointed as IAS or IFS from appearing in CSE 2026. As per the CSE 2026 rules announced on Wednesday, candidates will not be allowed to appear for the ‘main’ exam or be considered for the CSE-2026 exam even if such appointment takes place after the 2026 ‘preliminaries’.Candidates who have been appointed to IPS from earlier CSE can apply and appear in CSE-2026 but cannot relist IPS in their service preference. If the candidates were allotted IPS or any Group ‘A’ Central Service through CSE-2026, they will be able to give one improvement attempt in CSE-2027 by availing one-time training exemption. If a candidate selected through CSE-2026 neither attends training nor is exempted, his service allotment for 2026 will be cancelled. If a candidate who passed CSE-2026 screening appears again in CSE 2027 and gets better services, he will have to choose between 2026 and 2027 batch. If a candidate does not get any service in the 2027 examination, he will be allowed to return and appear for the service allotted under CSE 2026. If the candidate does not attend training for the final selected service (2026 or 2027), both allocations will be cancelled. After one improvement attempt (CSE-2027), the candidate cannot appear again in CSE-2028 unless he/she resigns. Candidates who have served from CSE-2025 or earlier will be given one opportunity to reappear in CSE-2026 or CSE-2027 without resigning. If they wish to sit for CSE in 2028 and beyond, they must first resign from the assigned service.UPSC In its CSE 2026 notification, it has also removed the capacity cap at examination centers for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) candidates, allowing them to be accommodated on priority basis. Initially, existing capabilities at each center will be used by both disabled and non-disabled candidates. However, once a center reaches full capacity, it will no longer be available for non-PwBD candidates, while PwBD candidates will continue to have the option to choose the same centre. More exam centers will also be set up for CSE 2026 – Meerut to ease traffic congestion in the Delhi-National Capital Region, Kanpur to decongest around Lucknow and Bhubaneswar to supplement the one near Cuttack. Apart from the notified exam centres, it also allows candidates to indicate their preferred nearby cities from a drop-down menu. This data will serve as a survey of candidate preferences and can be used to determine where new exam centers will be created where feasible.