On February 24, the Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld its interim order granting a 5-year age relaxation for candidates from the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) for the Civil Services Examination 2025. The court rejected the objections raised by UPSC, which had argued that changing the rules at the final stage would lead to practical issues. The court clarified that the candidates' results would be subject to the final decision of the pending petition.

The division bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain has scheduled the final hearing for February 24. Notably, on Monday, the High Court had directed UPSC in its interim order to grant a 5-year age relaxation for EWS candidates applying for the Civil Services Exam 2025. During the joint hearing of 16 petitions on February 25, UPSC argued that issuing such an interim order at the last minute would cause difficulties in conducting the exam. The Central Government's Deputy Solicitor General Pushpendra Yadav also stated that following the interim relief at the final stage would cause trouble for UPSC in issuing new notifications. However, the High Court rejected these arguments and upheld its order.

The court emphasized that the candidates should be allowed to participate in the exam with the age relaxation, and time should not be wasted, as the application deadline was set for February 18. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioner Aditya Narayan Pandey from Satna, argued that UPSC had previously granted age relaxation to candidates for various exams and increased participation. During the hearing on Monday, it was also argued that other reserved categories such as SC, ST, and OBC are granted age relaxation, and since EWS is also a reserved category, they should be entitled to the same benefit.