Making it clear that relaxation of age is not a synonym for reservation, the Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed petitions of candidates from the backward class seeking such relief for the post of district judge (entry level) as in the case of SC/ST candidates.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice AP Sahi and Justice Subramonium Prasad, said "We may clarify that the issue of reservation cannot be mixed up with the question of relaxation of age."
The bench said reservation is provided under Article 16 of the Constitution of India for equitable representation of the oppressed classes.
The petitioners said they too should benefit from age relaxation as was the case with the candidates of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, which stands at 48 years.
The Tamil Nadu government on January 13, 2019 issued a notification for filling 31 vacancies of District Judges and the upper age limit was fixed as 48 years for categories including BC, MBC, DC and for other unreserved categories it was 45 years as on July 1, 2019.
As no candidate secured minimum qualifying marks prescribed to clear the preliminary exams, there were no eligible candidates for selection to the post of district judges according to the notification.
Hence, the government issued another notification dated December 12, 2019 for 32 vacancies (one vacancy raised) by which the categories of BC, MBC, DC were left in the maximum upper age limit of 48 years which is now challenged.
The bench, which dismissed the petitions while referring to the report of Shetty Commission, in its order, said there was no relaxation in the upper age limit extended to the other Backward Class category candidates.
The Commission, which after considering the proposals of other States, including that of Tamil Nadu, had made a final recommendation of extending the benefit of relaxation in age of upto 48 years only to the SC/ST candidates, it said.
"When no such relaxation was either contemplated by the Shetty Commission or even indicated in the All India Judges' Association and others...we do not find any of the judgments relied on by the counsel for the petitioners coming to their aid for extending the benefit of relaxation in age to the Backward Class category candidates on par with the SC/ST candidates,"the bench added.
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