ASHUTOSH BHATT Vs. UTTARAKHAND PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. Bhagwat Mehra, learned Advocate for the petitioner, Mr. Paresh Tripathi, learned Chief Standing Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand/respondent no. 2 and 3 and Mr. B.D. Kandpal, learned Advocate for the Public Service Commission.

(2.) Prescription of the maximum age of 42 years as on 01.07.2019, in the advertisement issued by the Public Service Commission on 30.07.2019 inviting applications to fill up 46 posts of Assistant Conservator of Forests, is under challenged in this writ petition. The petitioner's date of birth is 09.05.1976, and he completed 42 years of age on 09.05.2018, more than a year before the cut-off date prescribed in the advertisement.

(3.) Mr. Bhagwat Mehra, learned Advocate for the petitioner, would submit that, since a requisition was issued by the State Government to fill up these 46 posts on 20.08.2014 and the inordinate delay in issuing the advertisement is solely on account of the lethargy exhibited by the Public Service Commission, the stipulation of the maximum age limit should be reckoned from the recruitment year in which the State Government had called upon the Public Service Commission to initiate the process of selection. Learned counsel would rely on "Sanjeev Kumar Sahay and others Vs. State of Jharkhand High Court and others"? (order of the Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court reported in 2008 3 JCR 267) in this regard. The order of the Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court is a consent order.