JSE & DHJSE 2022 : Supreme Court Relaxes Upper-Age Limit For Age-Barred Candidates Who Were Eligible In 2020 & 2021
Last Updated on March 14, 2022 by Administrator
Written By – Aishwarya
The Court granted the relaxation for the 2022 recruitments taking into account the fact that exams were not held in 2020 and 2021. Although only the issue of upper-age limit for DJS was before the Court, it invoked the powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to extend similar upper-age limit relaxation for DHJSE as well.
A Bench comprising the Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli was hearing two special leave petitions filed by the Delhi High Court on its administrative side challenging the orders passed by a division bench on its judicial side postponing (DJSE) 2022 and (DHJSE), 2022.
In a relaxation to the upper-age criteria of 32 years for the Delhi Judicial Service Examinations, the Delhi High Court on Monday agreed to allow candidates, who were eligible in 2020 and 2021 to participate in the present exam despite crossing the upper-age limit.
“Are you suggesting upper age limit of 32 be relaxed so whoever was 32 in 2021 will be eligible?”, Justice Chandrachud asked Rao. “We cannot only grant relief to you. We have to give similarly placed persons an equal bite of the cherry”, Justice Chandrachud said.
Background
The petitioner sought relaxation in the upper age limit for the exam before the High Court. While the last date of submission of application was March 20, the preliminary exam was scheduled for March 27.
Petition challenging minimum age limit of 35 years in the Delhi Higher Judicial Services Exam have been rendered ineligible for want of completion of 35 years of age on the date of reckoning, i.e. January 1, 2022.
“However, this Court is of the view that since the minimum age limit has been re-introduced after a hiatus of two years, the matters require consideration. The respondents are directed to extend the date for filling up the online application form beyond the next date of hearing.”
