New Delhi: Twenty-five-year-old P spent a year in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar preparing for the Central Armed Police Forces examination. When the results of the 2024 exam were declared last June, he was elated to see he’d cleared it on his first attempt. But that happiness has faded. Nine months later, he has neither been allocated a service nor called for training.
For 459 selected candidates like him, the real struggle only began after clearing the UPSC CAPF (Assistant Commandants) 2024 exam. Many had already celebrated the result with family and friends, and some let go of other jobs after clearing the exam.
“There is no communication from the UPSC about this concern. It’s been more than 270 days since the result came out and we haven’t received any further information,” said a candidate who cleared the exam and expects allocation to the ITBP based on his rank.
All selected candidates are to join the CAPF as assistant commandants (ACs) in one of five forces: BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, or SSB. The CAPF AC exam is conducted by the UPSC, but allocation to a specific force is determined by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) based on merit and candidate preferences. Candidates, as well as RTI responses seen by ThePrint, attribute the delay, at least partly, to a court battle involving CAPF candidates and UPSC, with no clear end in sight.
The candidates are now running from pillar to post, trying to get some elusive clarity on how much longer their future will remain on hold.
Also Read: Curious case of Jharkhand’s ghost DSPs, SDMs, forest officers. ‘We don’t exist officially’
Knocking on every door
Candidates say they have tried every available channel. They have filed multiple RTIs, approached authorities through the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System portal, and sent repeated emails and letters to UPSC, ITBP, and the Ministry of Home Affairs. Some visited the ITBP office in person. Others spent months making phone calls.
Each effort, however, has led to the same outcome — silence, vague responses, and allusions to ongoing litigation involving CAPF candidates and the UPSC.
One RTI response from the UPSC, reviewed by ThePrint, attributes the delay to issues outside of its control. In a letter dated January 2026, UPSC Under Secretary Pradeep Toppo told a candidate that force allocation falls under the purview of ITBP and the Ministry of Home Affairs, not UPSC. The letter also cited litigations pertaining to CAPF (ACs) Examination, 2024 as having caused “unavoidable delay in completing the examination process”. The grievance was then marked as disposed.
The case in question pertains to a batch of petitions filed by OBC candidates in the Delhi High Court. UPSC had rejected these candidates from the 2023 and 2024 CAPF cycles because their OBC-NCL (Non-Creamy Layer) certificates were issued outside a narrow prescribed window — even though the certificates themselves were valid. The candidates challenged this as arbitrary. In December 2025, Delhi HC Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla agreed, noting that candidates were effectively left with only about 20 days to obtain fresh certificates. It directed that deserving candidates should not be denied reservation benefits merely due to the date of issuance of the certificate.
It is this order that appears to have stalled the allocation process for the entire 2024 batch.
“UPSC wants to challenge it further and file an SLP [special leave petition] but it’s more than 90 days, and they haven’t filed it. We talked to the Home Ministry and ITBP, and they are saying that until UPSC files the SLP we can’t do anything,” said the selected candidate quoted earlier.
An RTI response, dated 24 February, from the UPSC Joint Secretary (Exam) Himanshu Kumar confirmed to a CAPF candidate that the litigation in question “is going to be challenged before the Hon’ble Supreme Court by the Commission” but did not specify when.
ThePrint has contacted UPSC and MHA via email for comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.
Also Read: UPSC capped re-tries by serving officers. Backlash still rages—‘hate against bureaucracy’
‘Unprofessional and disheartening’
For P, the injury is deepened by the fact that he cleared the Combined Defence Services (CDS) exam in March 2025 but chose to give it up to pursue the CAPF posting. He said at least 12 other candidates made the same decision.
A total of 506 vacancies were announced for the 2024 CAPF AC examination. After the written exam, physical and medical tests, and interviews, 459 candidates were recommended for appointment in the final result declared on 13 June 2025. As of 11 March 2026 — 271 days later — the selected candidates are still in limbo.
The wait is far longer than the three previous cycles, where the allocations came within weeks of the final result. For CAPF assistant commandants (AC) 2022, it took just 46 days. In 2021, it was 96 days and in 2023, the wait lasted 83 days.
“This is very unprofessional and disheartening for the students who studied really hard and cleared the exam with merit. A lot of time and effort went into this. Now waiting for force allocation without any communication is frustrating,” said another candidate, requesting anonymity.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)