While dismissing a writ petition filed by a lawyer seeking upper age limit relaxation in the 2023 examination for the appointment of District Judge, the Patna High Court reiterated that the mere delay in the issuance of the recruitment advertisement does not automatically confer any right or legitimate expectation for an individual to seek relaxation in the prescribed upper age limit for the preliminary examination.

The lawyer, Shahjahan had sought for issuance of a direction for quashing paragraph no. 3 of the Advertisement No. BSJS/1/2023 dated 11.12.2023 published for appointment to the post of District Judge (Entry Level) to the extent to which the cutoff date for determination of maximum age limit was fixed at 01.01.2023.

He further sought for a direction to the respondent authorities to fix the cutoff date for determination of age limit at 01.01.2022 in place of 01.01.2023 in view of the fact that no advertisement was published in the recruitment year 2022 and therefore, those who were eligible to participate in the recruitment year 2022 may be allowed to participate in the recruitment year 2023

The division bench of Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Rajiv Roy observed, “It is further an admitted fact that the petitioner availed the opportunity in the year 2021 though he could not make it finally and as such, it is not his case that he never got any chance to appear in the examination for the post of District Judge (Entry Level).”

“Further, the petitioner has failed to show anything in the advertisement so that the same can be termed to be arbitrary and thus violative of article 14 of the Constitution of India. It is a policy decision and the criteria prescribed by it whether it is relating to the age and/or the essential qualification cannot be interfered with,” the bench added.

The petitioner had an LLB degree and was enrolled with the Bihar State Bar Council in 2001. In the year 2021, an advertisement for the examination for the appointment of District Judge (Entry Level) (Advertisement No. BSJS/1/2021) was published on 08.12.2021. He appeared in the 2021 examination as a candidate but failed to finally clear the same.

The petitioner's case was that there was no advertisement in the year 2022 and now a fresh advertisement had come up vide Advertisement No. BSJS/1/2023 for the District Judge (Entry Level) direct from Bar Examination, 2023. Further, as in the year 2021, in 2023 also the clause 3 of the advertisement was put a bar on the candidate who had not completed 35 years of age and/or had already completed the age of 50 years as on 01.01.2023.

The Court in its verdict placed reliance on the case of Sasidhar Reddy Sura vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh and Ors. reported in (2014) 2 SCC 158 as also Dr. Ami Lal Bhatt vs. State of Rajasthan and Ors. reported in (1997) 6 SCC 614, and reiterated, “delay in issuance of advertisement by itself will not create any right or legitimate expectation in favour of a person so as to seek relaxation in the upper age limit as prescribed for a preliminary examination.”

“The petitioner has not shown any arbitrariness in the action of the respondent as also violation of fundamental or legal rights,” the Court added while not finding any merit in the writ petition, and dismissed the same.

Appearance:

For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Kumar Kaushik, Advocate

For the Respondent/s : Mr. Piyush Lall, Advocate

Case No.: Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.18498 of 2023

Case Title: Shahjahan v High Court of Judicature at Patna

LL Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Pat) 9

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