SRINAGAR: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Jammu Bench, has dismissed a batch of petitions filed by hundreds of overage aspirants seeking relaxation in the upper age limit for recruitment to 669 posts of Sub-Inspectors in the Jammu and Kashmir Police.
The petitions challenged Advertisement Notification No. 02 of 2024 issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) on November 22, 2024, which fixed the upper age limit at 28 years for open merit candidates.
The applicants had sought directions to the Union Territory administration, the Home Department, the General Administration Department, the Director General of Police and the JKSSB to grant age relaxation up to 30, 32 or 35 years and allow them to participate in the recruitment process.
The petitioners argued that the previous recruitment for Sub-Inspectors was conducted in 2021 and the three-year gap in recruitment had rendered many otherwise eligible candidates overage. They contended that the delay was attributable to the government and candidates should not suffer because of administrative inaction.
The aspirants also cited the 2021 Sub-Inspector recruitment process in which the government had enhanced the upper age limit from 28 to 30 years through a special order issued during the COVID-19 period.
Opposing the petitions, the government submitted that the earlier relaxation was a one-time exception necessitated by the pandemic and could not be treated as a precedent for future recruitments. The respondents further argued that the post of Sub-Inspector is a physically demanding uniformed service requiring young and energetic personnel, and that fixation of age limits falls within the policy domain of the government.
A bench comprising Administrative Member Ram Mohan Johri and Judicial Member Rajinder Singh Dogra held that prescription of eligibility conditions, including age limits, is primarily the prerogative of the employer and courts or tribunals cannot rewrite recruitment rules unless arbitrariness or discrimination is established.
The Tribunal observed that the applicants had failed to show any violation of statutory rules or discriminatory treatment, noting that the age condition applied uniformly to all candidates.
The CAT also relied upon an earlier judgment of the High Court of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh in similar petitions challenging the same advertisement notification. The High Court had dismissed those petitions while observing that the competent authority alone could consider requests for relaxation.
Rejecting the plea that delay in recruitment entitled candidates to relaxation, the Tribunal held that “delay in holding recruitment does not confer a vested right upon an overage candidate to compel the employer to relax eligibility conditions.”
The Tribunal further ruled that sympathy for overage aspirants could not override statutory recruitment norms and policy decisions governing police recruitment.
While dismissing all the Original Applications, the Tribunal granted liberty to the aspirants to file fresh representations before the competent authority within two weeks. It directed the competent authority to consider such representations by passing reasoned orders within six weeks, but clarified that the direction should not be construed as a mandate to grant age relaxation.
The Tribunal also vacated all interim orders that had earlier permitted some candidates to participate provisionally in the recruitment process and said such participation would not create any right or equity in their favour.
The recruitment process for 669 Sub-Inspector posts will now proceed in accordance with the notified eligibility conditions.
