The controversy surrounding Delhi-based coaching institute Anantam IAS's claim that 82 questions from the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination matched its content has escalated. On Wednesday, the institute admitted to backdating posts, a revelation that came shortly after the government banned Telegram over a similar issue related to NEET.
NSUI Raises Concerns
The dispute began when the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) questioned the institute's claim. In a Hindi post on X, NSUI stated, "If 82 out of 100 questions come from the content of just one coaching institute, this is not mere coincidence but a matter warranting serious investigation. The youth want to know whether any injustice is being done alongside their years of hard work." In response, the Centre dismissed the claim as "fake."
Institute Clarifies
Anantam IAS later issued a clarification, denying any prior access to the UPSC paper and rejecting suggestions of a leak. The institute stated, "A claim is being circulated that Anantam IAS already had the UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2026 questions or that the paper was leaked to us because some of our answer-key explanation articles displayed publication dates from before the examination." It emphasized that the paper was solved only after the exam held on May 24, 2026, and that answer keys and explanations were prepared thereafter.
Backdating Explained
The institute acknowledged that some articles carried publication dates before the exam but explained that these were intentionally backdated as part of an editorial decision. "It is simply that we solved the paper after the examination on 24 May 2026, just like every other institute. The earlier publication dates that some people saw were intentionally used to organise a large series of explanation articles in a logical order," the statement said.
Anantam IAS elaborated that publishing dozens of detailed articles simultaneously would have inundated subscribers with notifications and emails. Therefore, earlier publication dates were assigned to some articles to present the content in a structured sequence.
WordPress Technicalities
The institute further defended its actions by distinguishing between publication dates and update dates on WordPress. According to the statement, only publication dates were altered, while modification dates remained unchanged, indicating that the articles were created or edited after the exam. "That was a mistake in presentation, not an attempt to mislead. As soon as we realised this confusion, we corrected it," the institute said, noting that its website previously displayed only publication dates.
Anantam IAS also mentioned that it continues to backdate some articles as part of routine content management, calling it "housekeeping, not concealment." To support its position, the institute pointed to WordPress post IDs, which are sequential numbers that cannot be backdated. It argued that the IDs for the disputed articles showed they were created after the UPSC exam.
The institute confirmed that all 66 answer-key explanation articles cited in the controversy carried update dates of May 24 or May 25, 2026. It invited critics to verify the information through page source data, developer tools, and website records.
