New Delhi, Oct. 15 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday 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 shift in policy that ends years of resistance and is expected to bring greater transparency to India's most competitive recruitment process. A bench of justices PS Narasimha and AS Chandurkar, while disposing of a batch of petitions challenging the UPSC's earlier policy, noted that the Commission's recent affidavit marked a "conscious and well-considered decision". The new mechanism, it said, addressed candidates' grievances while aligning the UPSC's functioning with the principles of fairness and accountability. Under the new framework, the Commission will publish provisional answer keys soon after the prelims and invite representations supported by at least three authoritative sources. These objections will then be vetted by subject experts before final keys are finalised and results declared. The final answer key will, as before, be published after the entire examination cycle concludes. The top court's endorsement follows UPSC's affidavit filed earlier this month in response to petitions by civil service aspirants from the 2024 and 2025 exam cycles, who sought immediate disclosure of answer keys. The petitioners, represented by senior counsel Kapil Sibal, Devadatt Kamat and advocates Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Rajesh G Inamdar and Shashwat Anand, contended that the old practice of releasing keys only after the entire process, including interviews, ended left no scope to challenge errors. During the hearing, the bench recorded its appreciation for amicus curiae and senior advocate Jaideep Gupta and advocate-on-record Pranjal Kishore, whose detailed note recommending the release of provisional answer keys soon after the exam was "instrumental" in prompting UPSC to change its stand. The court also granted liberty to the petitioners to pursue past grievances before jurisdictional high courts, directing that such matters be heard expeditiously. "We have allowed the petitions in light of UPSC's new policy framework," said the bench, while clarifying that high courts may examine retrospective reliefs such as re-evaluation, compensatory attempt or objection windows for past exam cycles....