BENGALURU: In a major move, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has released a notification for Civil Services Exams 2026 in which it has placed restrictions and revised the number of attempts for candidates who are already into the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), Indian Foreign Services (IFS) and Indian Police Services (IPS).
This move by the UPSC has been appreciated by the faculty at the coaching institutions as they believe that it will enable democratisation giving a chance to fresh candidates to join the service.
Shashank KN, Faculty at Insights IAS, said, “It is a good move and the most awaited one as it has democratised the entire system giving place for fresh candidates. If a candidate has got IAS cadre in Manipur or Nagaland then he or she cannot write CSE again to get a home cadre or some other state cadre.
In such instances, they must forego the appointment or the service allocated. This has been implemented strictly from the past two years in Indian Forest Services as a lot of money and resources are invested to train the candidates once selected.”
He added, “If they apply for CSE to secure good rank and become an IAS or IFS, then the resources spent to train would go to waste. However, candidates who into forest services still apply for leaves and make excuses to write CSE every year despite being in the service. If restricted by the senior officials, they approach courts also.”
As per the CSE 2026 notification released on February 4, 2026, candidates who are already in the IAS and IFS through earlier exams, cannot appear in CSE-2026. It also stated that if the candidate appointed either as IAS or IFS after prelims 2026 but before mains 2026, they are restricted from writing mains 2026 even if they would have cleared prelims. If the candidate is appointed to IAS/ IFS after mains 2026 starts but before the final result, the candidate cannot be considered for any service through CSE 2026.
These restrictions are also placed on the IPS candidates who have cleared earlier exams. If the candidates were selected or appointed to IPS through an earlier CSE, the candidate cannot get IPS again through CSE-2026.