Revision summary
The clash is a scheduled UPSC interview versus two badly injured relatives who need help now. Life and rescue come first; the interview is a real but lesser good. Action is scene safety, emergency call, hospital handover, police information, then a truthful request to UPSC. Do not impersonate, bribe, or invent. Do not stay only to argue while they bleed. The same duty holds for a stranger; kinship removes the excuse of walking on.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
The stem puts a life's work and two bleeding relatives on the same road. The ethical centre is the duty to rescue a life in front of you, not the duty to protect a timetable.
Body
Stakeholders
- The injured mother and child, who need first aid, transport and a hospital now.
- Other road users, if the scene is still dangerous.
- You as an aspirant, with an interview letter that will not easily be reissued as a right.
- Family members waiting at the UPSC venue and at home.
- The Union Public Service Commission, which can be told the truth later; it cannot un-kill a child.
- Bystanders who may help or may only film.
Ethical issues and values
- Sanctity of life and the duty of rescue: a person who can help and walks away treats kin as less than a career file.
- Justice and non-partiality: they are relatives, but the same duty would hold for a stranger; kinship only removes the last excuse of "someone else will stop".
- Integrity: do not invent a story later. Do not, equally, use the accident as a casual lie if it did not happen.
- Emotional intelligence: panic will waste minutes; a sequence will save them.
- The interview is a legitimate personal good. It is not a higher good than two preventable deaths.
Options
- Option 1: Drive on to the interview and telephone someone else to help.
- Merit: you may reach the board on time.
- Demerit: if they need you now — bleeding, blocked airway, no other competent adult — the call is not help. A career built on that choice is already a comment on public service.
- Option 2: Stay for hours in a crowd argument with police, missing both hospital and any chance to inform UPSC.
- Merit: looks loyal.
- Demerit: you may not be the best person to file the FIR; the hospital is the first institution that matters.
- Option 3: Immediate rescue: make the scene safe, first aid, ambulance or your vehicle to the nearest hospital, hand over to doctors, inform family and police, then inform UPSC with facts and seek a later board if the rules allow.
- Merit: life first, then the career through a truthful channel.
- Demerit: you may still miss this day's interview; that is a real loss, not a moral error.
Action I would take
- Stop. Park without causing a second crash. Switch on hazards. Keep the child and mother from further traffic.
- Call emergency services at once (108 / 112) while checking breathing and bleeding. Use any first-aid you truly know; do not play surgeon.
- Use bystanders for specific jobs: one to wave traffic, one to fetch a doctor if a clinic is in sight, one to call the other parent.
- If the ambulance is late and the injuries are clearly time-critical, take them to the nearest hospital yourself, with someone in the back if possible.
- Do not abandon them in a corridor. Hand over to medical staff, give names, and leave a reachable number.
- Inform the police with a true account. You are a relative and a witness; do not manage the scene as if you owned it.
- Then contact UPSC / the designated help number / a mentor with the hospital record and time stamps, request postponement or a fresh interview slot as the Commission's process allows, and accept a no if the rules give no discretion.
- Do not ask a friend to impersonate you at the gate. Do not bribe a clerk for a false attendance.
- If a stranger had been on the road, the sequence would be the same. Relatives only make delay more shameful, not more optional.
Justification
- Article 21 is not only for the State. A future civil servant who cannot stop for blood will not stop for a file that has no camera.
- Professional codes and the Good Samaritan principle, recognised in Indian policy after the Supreme Court's directions on road-accident helpers, protect a rescuer who acts in good faith.
- The personality test itself looks for integrity and compassion. Saving two lives is the test that arrived early.
- Career harm is a cost I should try to reduce through honest communication, not through neglect of the injured.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD SCENE[Accident on the way] --> STOP[Stop and make safe] STOP --> AID[First aid and 108] AID --> HOSP[Hospital handover] HOSP --> UPSC[Inform UPSC with proof] DRIVE[Drive past] --> CAREER[Maybe on time] DRIVE --> DEATH[Preventable death]
Conclusion
I would stop, stabilise, move them to a hospital, inform police and family, then tell UPSC the truth and ask for whatever lawful second chance exists. An interview can be petitioned. A death on the kerb cannot.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Case study. You are a Public Information Officer (PIO) in a government department. You are aware that the RTI Act 2005 envisages transparency and accountability in administration. The act has functioned as a check on the supposedly arbitrarily administrative behaviour and actions. However, as a PIO you have observed that there are citizens who filed RTI applications not for themselves but on behalf of such stakeholders who purportedly want to have access to information to further their own interests. At the same time there are these RTI activists who routinely file RTI applications and attempt to extort money from the decision makers. This type of RTI activism has affected the functioning of the administration adversely and also possibly jeopardises the genuineness of the applications which are essentially aimed at getting justice. What measures would you suggest to separate genuine and non-genuine applications? Give merits and demerits of your suggestions.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2017 · Q12). View answer →
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If many people have already stopped, must I still miss the interview?
If competent help is truly in charge and you add nothing, you may give your number and go. If they are still unattended or you are the only relative who can consent and carry, you stay.
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Will UPSC always give a new date?
There is no right to a new date. You still do not buy a board seat with two deaths. You tell the truth and take the Commission's decision.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2022 · Q10 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. You have done MBA from a reputed institution three years back but could not get campus placement due to COVID-19 generated recession. However, after a lot of persuasion and series of competitive tests including written and interview, you managed to get a job in a leading shoe company. You have ageur parents who are dependent and staying with you. You also recently got married after getting this decent job. You were allotted the Inspection Section which is responsible for clearing the final product. In first one year, you learnt your job well and was appreciated for your performance by the management. The company is doing good business for last five years in domestic market and this year it is decided even to export to Europe and Gulf countries. However, one large consignment to Europe was rejected by their Inspecting Team due to certain poor quality and was sent back. The top management ordered that ibid consignment to be cleared for the domestic market. As a part of Inspecting Team, you observed the glaring poor quality and brought to the knowledge of the Team Commander. However, the top management advised all the members of the team to overlook these defects as the management cannot bear such a huge loss. Rest of the team members except you promptly signed and cleared the consignment for domestic market, overlooking glaring defects. You again brought to the knowledge of the Team Commander that such consignment, if cleared even for domestic market, will tarnish the image and reputation of the company and will be counter-productive in the long run. However, you were further advised by the top management that if you do not clear the consignment, the company will not hesitate to terminate your services citing certain innocuous reasons. (a) Under the given conditions, what are the options available to you as a member of the Inspecting Team? (b) Critically evaluate each of the options listed by you. (c) What option would you adopt and why? (d) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by you? (e) What can be the consequences of overlooking the observations raised by the Inspecting Team? -
2025 · Q7 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Vijay was Deputy Commissioner of remote district of Hilly Northern State of the country for the last two years. In the month of August heavy rains lashed the complete state followed by cloud burst in the upper reaches of the said district. The damage was very heavy in the complete state especially in the affected district. The complete road network and telecommunication were disrupted and the buildings were damaged extensively. People's houses have been destroyed and they were forced to stay in open. More than 200 people have been killed and about 5000 were badly injured. The Civil Administration under Vijay got activated and started conducting rescue and relief operations. Temporary shelter camps and hospitals were established to provide shelter and medical facilities to the homeless and injured people. Helicopter services were pressed in, for evacuating sick and old people from remote areas. Vijay got a message from his hometown in Kerala that his mother was seriously sick. After two days Vijay received the unfortunate message that his mother has expired. Vijay has no close relative except one elder sister who was US citizen and staying there for last several years. In the meantime, the situation in the affected district deteriorated further due to resumption of heavy rains after a gap of five days. At the same time, continuous messages were coming on his mobile from his hometown to reach at the earliest for performing last rites of his mother. (a) What are the options available with Vijay?(b) What are the ethical dilemma being faced by Vijay?(c) Critically evaluate and examine each of these options identified by Vijay.(d) Which of the options, do you think, would be most appropriate for Vijay to adopt and why? -
2022 · Q11 · GS IV · 20 marks
Case study. Rakesh was working as a Joint Commissioner in Transport department of a city. As a part of his job profile, among others, he was entrusted with the task of overseeing the control and functioning of City Transport Department. A case strike by drivers' union of City Transport Department over the issue of compensation to a driver who died on duty while driving the bus came up before him for decision in the matter. He gathered that the driver (deceased) was plying Bus No. 528 which passed through busy and congested roads of the city. It so happened that near an intersection on the way, there was an accident involving the a middle-aged man. It was found that there was altercation between the driver and the car driver. Heated arguments between them led to fight and the driver gave him a a blow. Lot of passerbys had gathered and tried to intervene but without success. Eventually, both of them were badly injured and profusely bleeding and were taken to the nearby hospital. The driver succumbed to the injuries and could not be saved. The middle-aged driver's condition was also critical but after a day, he recovered and was discharged. Police had immediately come to the spot and FIR was registered. Police investigation revealed that the quarrel in was started by the bus driver and he had resorted to physical violence. There exchange of blows between them. The City Transport Department management is considering of not giving any extra compensation to the driver's (deceased) family. The family is very aggrieved. depressed and agitated against the discriminatory and non-sympathetic approach of the City Transport Department management. The bus driver (deceased) was 52 years of age, was survived by his wife and two school-college going daughters. He was the sole earner of the family. The City Transport Department workers' union took up this case and when found no favourable response from the management, decided to go on strike. The union's demand was two fold. First was full extra compensation as given to other drivers who died on duty and secondly employment to one family member. The strike has continued for 10 days and the deadlock remains. (a) What are the options available to Rakesh to meet the above situation? (b) Critically examine each of the options identified by Rakesh (c) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Rakesh? (d) What course of action would Rakesh adopt to diffuse the above situation?
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