Amitava Roy, C.J. - (1.) THE petitioner, an aspirant to partake in the selection process initiated by advertisement dt. 25.11.2013, issued by the Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, seeks to invoke the writ jurisdiction of this Court to annul Rule 17 of the Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules, 2010 (for short, hereafter referred to as 'the Rules') (amended), as ultra vires for stipulating the minimum age of eligibility to be 23 years, instead of 21 years, or no age. An appropriate, writ, order or direction has been sought for to modify Clause 8 of the aforestated advertisement to reduce the minimum age of eligibility to 21 years, or no age as on 01.01.2014 and also to allow the petitioner to appear in the examination to be held pursuant thereto. Heard Mr. Gaurav Gupta, the learned counsel for the petitioner.
(2.) THE pleaded case of the petitioner, in brief, is that she has passed the B.A., L.L.B. (Hons.) Five Years Integrated Course from Chankya National Law University, Patna securing 65.28%. As in terms of Clause 8 of the advertisement dt. 25.11.2013, issued by the Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, initiating a process for recruitment to the Civil Judge cadre of the Rajasthan Judicial Service (for short, hereafter referred to as 'the service'), she is under aged, she seeks the above reliefs. She has averred as well that in Madhya Pradesh High Court, Jabalpur and Punjab & Haryana High Court, the minimum age for recruitment to the said cadre is 21 years and in the High Court of Delhi, there is no such prescription of minimum age. The learned counsel for the petitioner has reiterated above to impeach the validity of Rule 17 of the Rules. We have considered the pleaded facts, documents annexed and the arguments advanced.
(3.) RULE 17 of the Rules prescribes age limits of the candidates of various categories for direct recruitment to the cadre of Civil Judge, which, for ready reference, is extracted herein below: - 17. Age. -A candidate for direct recruitment to the cadre of Civil Judge must have attained the age of 23 years and must not have attained the age of 35 years on the first day or January following the last date fixed for receipt of applications: Provided that - (i) the upper age limit mentioned above shall be relaxed by 5 years in case of candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Women Candidates. (ii) the upper age limit for the persons serving in connection with the affairs of the State, Panchayat Samities, Zila Parishads or Public Sector Undertakings/Corporations in substantive capacity shall be 40 years. (iii) the upper age limit in the case of widow/divorced women shall be upto 45 years. Explanation. -In the case of widow she will have to furnish a certificate of death of her husband from the competent authority and in case of divorcee, she will have to furnish the proof of divorce. (iv) If a candidate would have been entitled in respect of his/her age to appear at the examination in any year in which no such examination was held, he/she shall be deemed to be entitled in respect of his/her age to appear at the next following examination. (v) If for any reason, the written examination/interview is cancelled in any particular year, it shall be open to the Recruiting Authority to grant age relaxation to the candidate to appear in the next examination.;