SANTOSH ADHIKARI Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed with a prayer for a direction to the State-Opposite Parties to grant age relaxation to the Petitioner in terms of Odisha Civil Service (Fixation of Upper Age Limit) Amendment Rules, 2022 under Annexure-9 to the writ petition for appointment to the post of Assistant Director (Law) and for a declaration that the Gazette Notification dtd. 15/1/2022 under Annexure-11 is not applicable to the case of the Petitioner. The Petitioner has also prayed for a further direction to the Opposite Parties to consider the candidature of the Petitioner for appointment to the post of Assistant Director (Law) in Home Department by relaxing the upper age limit of Ex- servicemen candidates as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Defence and to treat the Petitioner at par with inservice Government servant candidates in respect of whom the upper age limit has been fixed at 45 years in the 2017 Rules.

(2.) The factual matrix of the case, in gist, is that on 18/11/2021, the Odisha Public Service Commission (in short 'OPSC')-Opposite Party No.2 published an advertisement for recruitment to the post of Assistant Director (Law). The Petitioner, who is an Ex-servicemen, is eligible in all respect to appear in the aforesaid examination save an obstacle in the shape of the upper limit criteria fixed in the advertisement. Further, it appears that by the time of submission of candidature, the upper age limit for Ex-servicemen candidate was fixed at 40 years, however, the Petitioner was by then over aged by one year and six months. Therefore, initially the candidature of the Petitioner was not accepted and he was not allowed to fill-up the form for being considered for appointment to the post of Assistant Director (Law).

(3.) Being aggrieved by such fixation of upper age limit, the Petitioner approached the Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha by filing a representation on 14/12/2021 with a prayer to increase the upper age limit from 40 years to 45 years for ex-servicemen category at par with the inservice Government employees or at least for grant of the relaxation as has been fixed in Fixation of Upper Age Limit Rules, 2022. Since the representation of the Petitioner was not considered by the Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha, the Petitioner was constrained to approach this Court by filing W.P.(C) No.39860 of 2021 on 17/12/2021. While the said writ application was pending before this Court, the Government of Odisha vide Gazette Notification No.117 amended the Odisha Civil Service (Fixation of Upper Age Limit) Rules, 1998 by the amending Act of the year 2022 thereby increasing the upper age limit from 32 years to 38 years for all General Category candidates except the reserved category in respect of the advertisement made during the calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023.