PRAYAGRAJ, Sept. 27 -- A division bench of the Allahabad high court on Friday directed the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) to conduct the main examination of Combined State Engineering Services (CSES)-2024 as per schedule, considering the fact that the same is to be held on September 28 and 29. The court, however, made it clear that the exam will be conducted as per schedule, but the results will be subject to the outcome of the special appeal. The bench comprising justice MC Tripathi and justice AK Gupta passed the order on a special appeal filed by the UP Public Service Commission. The bench observed: "We find that the writ petitions preferred by about 50 petitioners have been allowed by learned Single Judge vide impugned judgement and order dated 25.09.2025 with direction to the Commission to re-draw the list." The court said: "At this stage, this court feels that as the examination is going to be held on September 28, 2025, and since more than 7,000 candidates will be appearing in the said examination, any disturbance in the examination at the eleventh hour will result in chaos and injustice to the appearing candidates." "Therefore, to maintain equity and balance of justice, it will be in the interest of justice to allow the examination to be held on the scheduled date, but the result will be subject to final outcome of the special appeal," added the bench. On Thursday, the single bench of the high court directed the UPPSC to revise its preliminary examination results for the 2024 Combined State Engineering Services recruitment, holding that the principle of migration applies even at the stage of preliminary or screening tests. The preliminary examination, held earlier this year, had its results declared on May 26, 2025. Against 609 posts, 7,358 candidates were shortlisted for the main examination, whereas Clause 11(8) of the advertisement required 15 times the vacancies, 9,135 candidates, to be declared qualified. Candidates belonging to reserved category pleaded before the single judge that the Commission's method of publishing results strictly category-wise unfairly excluded many meritorious candidates belonging to OBC, SC and ST communities who had scored higher than the last unreserved candidate but were not counted in the open list. UPPSC's plea before the single judge was that the Commission had strictly adhered to Clause 11(8) and followed the Reservation Act, 1994, which mandated separate efficiency standards, 35% for SC/ST candidates and 40% for others and migration was permitted only at the final stage. The single bench, after hearing parties concerned, directed UPPSC to redraw the preliminary results by including reserved category candidates who had secured marks at par with or above the unreserved cut-off in the open list. This order was challenged before the division bench in the present proceedings by filing a special appeal....