Supreme Court rejects plea for relaxation of upper age limit for J&K Civil Judge (Junior Division) Exam 2023

Satya Prakash

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New Delhi, October 7

The Supreme Court has rejected a petition seeking directions to relax the upper age limit of 35 years for the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Judge (Junior Division) Examination 2023.

“We are not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said on Friday, dismissing the petition against the October 4 verdict of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh that had refused to relax the upper-age limit.

Earlier, the CJI agreed to take up the matter following an urgent ‘mentioning’ made by the petitioner’s counsel who submitted that the examination was scheduled on Sunday.

The Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission had notified that the maximum age of a candidate to be eligible to appear for the examination must be 35 years as on January 1, 2023.

As many as 23 candidates aged between 36 and 38 years had moved the high court seeking one-time age relaxation due to the withdrawal of posts they had applied for in 2019 when they were still eligible.

Citing the February 15, 2022 notification issued by the General Administration Department granting one-time age relaxation to candidates who had previously applied for withdrawn posts, they had sought a similar relief.

However, pointing out that the withdrawn posts were governed under the Jammu and Kashmir Dehi Adalats Act, 2013 and were not part of the current selection process, the high court dismissed their petition.

The Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service (Judicial) Recruitment Rules, 1967, did not contain provisions for relaxation in the minimum or upper age limit, it noted.

“The petitioners, thus, cannot seek relaxation as a matter of right, if they are otherwise not eligible merely because they could not participate in the selection process in the year 2019, when the posts were withdrawn,” the HC had said, adding the petitioners had multiple opportunities to participate in previous selection processes held between 2009 and 2018.