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Under the Rule 12 of Civil Service Rules 2026, candidates who are appointed to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or Indian Foreign Service (IFS) through an earlier exam and continue to be members of the service will be not eligible to appear in the UPSC CSE 2026.
UPSC bars serving IAS, IFS, IPS officers for second chance from CSE 2026
New Delhi: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has introduced new rules in its Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2026 notification. The UPSC has limited re-attempts for candidates already allocated to services. Under this notification, serving IAS and IFS officers are barred from appearing in CSE 2026.
The new notification also puts conditions on IPS officers and candidates allocated Group ‘A’ services who wish to improve their rank in the next attempt. This new rule formalises only a one-time improvement window. It has closed earlier gaps that allowed repeated attempts without resignation.
The New Rules
Under the Rule 12 of Civil Service Rules 2026, candidates who are appointed to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or Indian Foreign Service (IFS) through an earlier exam and continue to be members of the service will be not eligible to appear in the UPSC CSE 2026.
The restriction applies at all stages. If a candidate is appointed to IAS or IFS after the Preliminary exam but before the Main exam, they cannot write the Mains. If appointed after the Mains has started but before the final result is declared, they will not be considered for allocation under CSE 2026.
(...being updated)
