In a significant turnaround, the Supreme Court of India on Friday revised its earlier directive and allowed only one candidate—rather than 713—to appear in the Rajasthan sub-inspector/platoon commander recruitment examination scheduled for April 5–6.

Granting relief to the Rajasthan Public Service Commission, a bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma, which convened on a holiday, modified its April 2 order following submissions that key facts had been withheld earlier.

The RPSC is set to conduct the examination to fill 1,015 posts, with over 7.70 lakh candidates expected to appear.

The court’s earlier order had directed the commission to issue provisional admit cards to 713 candidates, including petitioner Suraj Mal Meena. It had also stipulated that their results would remain withheld until the Rajasthan High Court delivered its verdict on related petitions.

However, upon reconsideration, the apex court limited the relief solely to Meena. It clarified that other candidates—who were not parties before it—could approach the high court to seek permission to appear in a future test, depending on the pending ruling.

The recruitment examination had earlier been scrapped amid allegations of large-scale irregularities and malpractices. The RPSC subsequently announced a fresh test but denied age relaxation to candidates disqualified on that ground, triggering legal challenges.

A single-judge bench of the high court had initially allowed affected candidates to provisionally appear, but this was later stayed by a division bench—prompting the petitioner to move the Supreme Court.