UPSC released the e-admit card for the EPFO Enforcement Officer/Accounts Officer (EO/AO) recruitment test on August 9, 2021. The written test was held on September 5, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The “2020” in the name refers to the recruitment cycle, which was first advertised in 2020, not to the year of the test. As of 2026 this is a historical notice: the card download is not a live service, and the dates below describe what happened in 2021.
The key facts of the 2021 notice
The table below collects the figures reported for this cycle. The post count comes from Scroll’s August 9, 2021 report and was not separately confirmed in the official notices reviewed.
| Item | What was reported | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Admit card release | August 9, 2021 | Scroll report, August 9, 2021 |
| Test date | September 5, 2021 | Scroll report, August 9, 2021 |
| Test window | 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon | Scroll report, August 9, 2021 |
| Reporting time | One hour before the scheduled time, as reported by Scroll | Scroll report, August 9, 2021 |
| Entry closing | 10 minutes before the scheduled start | UPSC e-admit-card instructions |
| Posts | 421 EO/AO posts | Scroll report, August 9, 2021 (reported count) |
| Question format | Objective type, equal marks per question, negative marking for wrong answers | Scroll report, August 9, 2021 |
Scroll’s reporting time and UPSC’s entry-closing time describe different things: the first is when the newspaper said candidates should arrive, the second is the official cut-off for entry. Plan for the earlier of the two.
Why the test is labelled 2020 but held in 2021
The recruitment was advertised in 2020, and its test date moved more than once. The table shows the sequence of official postponement notices.
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|---|---|---|
| October 4, 2020 | Deferred | UPSC/PIB notice, June 5, 2020 |
| May 9, 2021 | Deferred | UPSC/PIB notice, April 19, 2021 |
| September 5, 2021 | Scheduled; admit card released August 9, 2021 | Scroll report, August 9, 2021 |
Anyone searching for the 2020 admit card will mostly find references to the later 2021 schedule, so checking the test date against the table above avoids confusing the two.
How candidates downloaded the admit card in 2021
Scroll’s report described the download steps used at the time. These steps applied to the 2021 release and should not be used as current instructions.
- Open the UPSC recruitment notice for the 421 Enforcement Officer–Accounts Officer posts on the official UPSC website.
- Follow the e-admit-card link for the EPFO recruitment test.
- Enter your registered login details and submit.
- Download the e-admit card.
- Print the card before the exam day.
What to carry and do on exam day
UPSC’s e-admit-card instructions for this test set out the requirements at the test centre:
- Bring the printed e-admit card and the original photo identity card whose number is shown on the admit card. The instruction reads: “Bring this e-Admit Card along with the (original) Photo Identity Card, whose number is mentioned in the e-Admit Card, to secure admission to Test Centre.”
- Keep the admit card until the result of the recruitment test has been declared.
- Mark answers with a black ballpoint pen, as the official instructions specify.
- Arrive early: entry closes 10 minutes before the scheduled commencement time.
What the format meant for candidates
Scroll described the test as objective type, with equal marks for each question and negative marking for wrong answers. Under negative marking, a guess that turns out wrong reduces the score, so candidates in this format benefited from answering only questions they could reasonably work out. The exact marking scheme for each question was set out in UPSC’s official notice rather than the news report.
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The September 5, 2021 test is over, and the August 2021 download is no longer a working route to an admit card. For a current UPSC examination, check the official UPSC website and its recruitment notices, which list the admit-card process for each test. A link or copy of the 2021 notice found elsewhere should be treated as an archived record, not a live download.
The 2021 notice is still useful as a worked example of how UPSC postponements are announced, how the card and photo ID must match, and why the test year and recruitment year can differ.
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