New Delhi:
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is using an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system to detect and reject ineligible applications at the application stage for the Civil Service (Preliminary) Examination 2026. UPSC officials told NDTV that the exercise led to around 600 applications being rejected before candidates even took the exam.
UPSC Chairman Ajay Kumar told NDTV, “UPSC has conducted a deduplication exercise at the application stage of the preliminary examination to ensure that all genuine candidates are correctly identified and fraudulent applications or multiple applications are detected and eliminated.”
Rejected applications included multiple applications by the same candidate, as well as applicants who had already exhausted their maximum number of attempts or who exceeded the prescribed age limit for the category.
Mr. Kumar further added, “This exercise relies on secure comparison with the commission’s existing database while candidates’ information remains fully protected. UPSC strives to create a level playing field for all candidates and technology is a key enabler to achieve that objective.”
This move marks an important change in the European Commission’s review process. “Till last year, UPSC used to conduct such checks at the interview stage after candidates passed the preliminary and main exams,” a UPSC official said.
According to officials, the AI system used in the exercise was developed internally by UPSC with support from the Ministry of Information Technology.
“Now, we have access to technology to screen and filter applications at the preliminary stage itself. The artificial intelligence is a software developed internally by UPSC with support from the Ministry of Information Technology,” the official said.
The initiative comes two years after former IAS trainee Puja Khedkar was sacked in 2024. It was learned that Khedkar appeared for the 2022 civil service exam despite exhausting the number of attempts he was allowed to take by allegedly changing his name and the names of his parents. The UPSC later canceled her candidature.
The commission had introduced several technology-driven measures for the 2026 review cycle, including Aadhaar-based authentication, live photos, facial matching, and AI-powered application deduplication.
Of the 818,000,000 candidates who registered for the exam held on May 24, approximately 549,000,000 took the exam in the end. The number of applicants has decreased from 950,000 in 2025. According to UPSC officials, newly introduced verification measures may be one of the reasons for the drop in applications.
Officials said nearly 94 per cent of applicants opted for Aadhaar authentication through the new application portal introduced last year, effectively establishing them as unique applicants with no scope for duplication.
For the remaining approximately 49,000 applicants, the AI system analyzed names, parents’ names, dates of birth, and photos to search for duplicate entries. Those applications were then checked against the commission’s database spanning the past 15 years to determine whether candidates had exhausted the number of allowed attempts or were over the age limit.
“It has come to our attention that around 600 candidates for the civil services exam have either exhausted their permissible attempts or were found to be above the applicable age limit for the category. Hence, their applications have been rejected,” a UPSC official said.
The commission also added another verification exercise to the preliminary application stage this year to check whether candidates changed their social category from their previous application.
“The AI system was used to compare the category declared by the applicant with the category mentioned in previous attempts. It flagged cases where the category changed, such as from general to EWS or from SC to OBC,” the official said.
The exercise flagged 43,497 such cases. Officials said an email was sent to everyone requesting clarification. “It was found that many people had applied in the general category in the previous attempts as they could not obtain the required certificates on time. After this exercise, 133 applications (out of a total of 569) were canceled as the candidates had already exhausted the number of attempts allowed in their respective categories,” the official said.
As per UPSC regulations, general category candidates can appear for the exam six times up to the age of 32 years. OBC candidates can appear nine times up to the age of 35 years, while SC and ST candidates can appear for an unlimited number of attempts up to the age of 37 years.
