The Union Public Services Commission has expanded the restrictions on applying for the Civil Services Examination from 2026 onwards for candidates who are allotted the Indian Police Service or any other Central Services Group “A”, according to a notification for the CSE 2026 issued on Wednesday (February 4, 2026).
The notification also mandated that face authentication would be mandatory for all candidates across all examination venues, as reported by The Hindu last month. The UPSC added that live photo capture would be required at the time of filling out the common application forms for the examinations.
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The expansion of the restrictions has led to some confusion on social media, even as many users pointed out that the notification had several spelling mistakes in it. One user pointed out errors in the spelling of “examination”, the spelling of the government’s PRATIBHA portal, and words such as “statutory”, “functional”, and “candidates”.
The notification said that the UPSC was looking to fill approximately 933 vacancies this year, of which 33 would be reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disability.
