Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) issued an important public notice today, May 17, 2021, announcing the postponement of the 66th Combined Main (Written) Competitive Examination (CCE). The written exam was previously scheduled on June 04, 05 and 08, 2021 but now stands postponed. According to the notice, the postponement decision came in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising number of cases in the country. New exam dates shall be announced on the official website bpsc.bih.nic.in in due course of time.

Along with postponing the exam, BPSC had earlier extended the registration deadline for 66 Mains from May 07 to 17, 2021, up to 5:00 pm. Authorities have provided a total of 691 vacancies under this exam. Once conducted, the commission will curate a merit list based on the marks obtained by candidates. Subsequently, qualified candidates shall be required to attend the interview round. Based on the consolidated marks obtained in the written exam and interview round, a final merit list shall be curated.
The 66 Mains written exam shall comprise of three subjects out of which two are compulsory – General Hindi and General Studies. General Hindi will be of 100 marks while General Studies shall contain two papers with each paper being allotted 300 marks. Besides this, candidates must also appear for certain optional subjects from the list provided. Each preferred or optional subject shall comprise of a 300-mark paper.
The written exam has to be answered within a duration of 3 hours. Candidates can answer all three subjects in English, Hindi or Urdu depending on their preference. Apart from these three languages, candidates shall not be allowed to answer in any other language.
Besides the 66 Mains, the 65 Mains results are expected to come out 10 days after the lockdown ends in Bihar. Yesterday, the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, extended the lockdown till May 25, 2021. While the situation has improved in the state and the positivity rate has come down, a lockdown extension is needed to further improve the pandemic situation. Hence, if the situation subsides in the state by then, results for the 65th CCE are expected to come out by June 04, 2021.
Previously, the BPSC had issued an important notice on April 04, 2021, announcing the postponement of the 31st Bihar Judicial Services Main (Written) Competitive Examination. According to the notice, the exam was scheduled on April 08, 2021. However, it was postponed to a later date due to surge in COVID-19 cases in the state. However, a decision on the conduction of 31st judicial exam is likely to come out soon. However, BPSC has not provided any updates so far.