New Delhi, Oct. 15 -- The Supreme Court has approved the Union Public Service Commission's (UPSC) proposal to publish provisional answer keys immediately after the Civil Services Preliminary Examination and invite objections from candidates before finalising results a landmark reform that ends decades of resistance and ushers in a new era of transparency in India's most prestigious recruitment process.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and AS Chandurkar, while disposing of a batch of petitions challenging the UPSC's earlier policy of delayed disclosure, observed that the Commission's new affidavit represented a "conscious and well-considered decision" made after extensive deliberation.

The Court stated that the revised mechanism effectiv...