The Delhi High Court on Tuesday deferred the Delhi Judicial Services Examination, 2022, which was scheduled to be held on March 27 by two weeks as interim relief in a plea seeking relaxation of upper age limit to appear in the examination.
The Court directed that the last date for receiving applications for Delhi Judicial Service Examination 2022 be rescheduled and the exam be postponed.
The development came in the light of a petition moved before the Division Bench comprising Justices Vipin Sanghi and Dinesh Kumar Sharma by an aspirant.
At the outset, the online application for the examination has been called for by the High Court through a notification on February 24 this year. The last date for filling application forms is March 20 and the examination was to be held on March 27.
During the course of hearing, while issuing notice, the Bench sought response from the High Court of Delhi through its Registrar General and directed for extending the last date for filling up application forms beyond the next date of hearing.
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The matter is directed to be placed before the Bench headed by Justice Manmohan, which is seized of a batch of petitions challenging the minimum age limit of 35 years for appearing in the Delhi Higher Judicial Services Examination, 2022.
The matter is slated for further hearing on April 7. Filed by Advocate Devina Sharma, an aspirant for the examination who is over 32 years of age, alleges that she is denied of her fundamental right of equality of opportunity in matters of public employment on account of the fact that the maximum age limit to appear in the examination for candidate belonging to General Category is fixed at 32 years as on January 1, 2022.
The grievance of the petitioner is that the examination, which is preferably required to be conducted every year in terms of the Delhi Judicial Service Rule, 1970, was last held for 2019 and has not been conducted in the past two years.
“As the said examination could not be conducted in the successive years i.e, 2020 and 2021, possibly on account of the practical difficulties & logistics of conducting the examination in these years on account of the world wide pandemic namely Covid 19, the petitioner has been deprived of her opportunity to appear in the said competitive examination, only due to having crossed the upper age limit when the DJSE -2022 was notified,”
– the plea averred.
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The plea added thus:
“There be no infringement of any right to the other already eligible candidates appearing for the said examination and on the contrary, the said relaxation of age would be in consonance with principles of equality, reasonableness, fairness and equity which are enshrined in the Constitution of India and guaranteed to all its citizens in equal measure.”