The controversial CSAT paper will now be a qualifying paper in the Civil Services Examinations, said a press release by ministry of personnel, public grievances & pensions issued on Wednesday.

It has informed that an expert committee would be constituted to comprehensively examine various issues raised from time to time namely, eligibility, syllabus, scheme and pattern of civil services examination.

Importantly it has decided that, “till such time the Government takes decision on the recommendation of the above Committee, the General Studies Paper-II(CSAT) in the civil services(Preliminary) examination will remain a qualifying paper with a minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.”

Further the English language comprehension skill portion from General Studies Paper-II of civil services (Preliminary) examination will continue to remain excluded. The above decisions are incorporated in the CSE Rules-2015.

CSAT or civil service aptitude test is the screening exam which is followed by the mains exam and a personality test to recruit civil servants. In 2011 CSAT was introduced as a new pattern of exam which replaced the old pattern which had two papers of general studies and an optional subject paper. Since the introduction of the CSAT paper it has been alleged that the paper favors the student of the science and English background and students have been protesting against it. 

The civil services examination (CSE) is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruiting for various all India and central services that includes Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Revenue Service (IRS) among others.