SMTI ANJANA vs union public service commission (UPSC)

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CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL
GUWAHATI BENCH
[Reserved]

Original Application No. 46/373/2023


Reserved on: 18.08.2026


Pronounced on: 22.09.2026

Coram:-

HON’BLE MR. RAJINDER SINGH DOGRA, JUDICAL MEMBER
HON’BLE MS. MALLIKA ARYA, ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBER


Between

Smti. Anjana aged about 38 years,
Working as a TGT Teacher in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,
JNV Niuland, Nagaland – 797103.
Under Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti,
Ministry of Education, Dept. of School Education &
Literacy, Government of India, having its Regional
Office at Shillong.

......Applicant


[By Advocate: Ms. S. Das, Ms. H. Das, Mr. R. Choudhury]


-AND-

Union Public Service Commission(UPSC)
Through Under Secretary,
Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road,
New Delhi.

....Respondent


[By Advocate: Dr. A. Todi, UPSC Adv. ]

OA No. 46/373/2023
Digitally signed by
SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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ORDER
PER R.S. DOGRA, MEMBER (J):

The instant OA has been filed by the applicant praying for
the following relief(s):-
8.1. Under the facts and circumstances stated above, the
applicant humbly prays that Your Lordships be pleased to
admit this application, call for the records of the case and
issue notice to the respondents to show cause as to why the
relief(s) sought for in this application shall not be granted and
on perusal of the records and after hearing the parties on the
cause or causes that may be shown, be pleased to grant the
following relief(s):
8.2. That this Hon'ble Tribunal be pleased to direct the
respondent no. 1 to provisionally allow the applicant to
appear for the interview during the pendency of this petition.
8.3 That this Hon'ble Tribunal be pleased to stay the
interview till the disposal of this petition and
8.4 That this Hon'ble Tribunal be pleased to direct the
respondents to allow the applicant's candidature and
consider her Jawahar Navodaya Experience as valid work
experience and thus giving her the requisite age relaxation
and accepting her candidature for the Vacancy No.
22051009328.
8.5 That this Hon'ble Tribunal be pleased to further direct
the respondent no. 1 to not further harass the applicant
during the pendency of this application.
8.6 Any other relief/(s) that this Hon'ble Court may deem fit
and proper.

2. This application is made for allowing the applicant's
candidature to be accepted by the respondents and to allow her
to participate in the interview for recruitment process to the
post of Vice Principal in Directorate of Education, Education
OA No. 46/373/2023
Digitally signed by
SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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Department, Government of NCT, Delhi, which was being
conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC),
wherein her candidature was rejected by the commission vide
email dated 28.11.2023 stating that her experience in Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya will not be considered for age relaxation.
The applicant in the present petition had applied for
recruitment to the post of Vice Principal in Directorate of
Education, Education Department, Government of NCT, Delhi,
which was being conducted by the Union Public Service
Commission (UPSC). In the said recruitment, the applicant was
qualified for interview after participating in the recruitment test
held on 11.12.2022 and based on the documents uploaded at
the time of filing of the online application forms. However,
during the scrutiny, the applicant's candidature was cancelled
on 25.09.2023 citing the reason that her “Experience
certificate” was not in proper format. The applicant re-
submitted her Experience Certificate provided by Navodaya
Vidyalaya Samiti issued on 27.09.2023 and sent the same to
the respondent office on 02.10.2023 to which the respondent
vide letter no. F.1/47(O7)/2022-R1111/SPC-II, dated
28.11.2023 once again rejected her candidature after final
scrutiny with the remark, “Overaged as JNV Experience has
OA No. 46/373/2023
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SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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not been considered eligible for age relaxation”. The respondent
authorities changed the modalities of the recruitment
advertisement after declaration of the recruitment test result
and basing on the changed recruitment modalities, applicant
having no other alternative is filing this Original Application.

3. Learned counsel for the Respondents has filed his written
statement, wherein he averred that during scrutiny of the
dossiers/documents of the Recruitment Test qualified
candidates, it was found that the date of birth of the applicant
is 08.07.1985 and as on closing date of the application for the
post i.e., 16.06.2022, "the age of the applicant was 38 Years,
11 Months, 8 Days whereas the maximum age limit prescribed
for the candidates belonging to Unreserved Category was 35
years. That the applicant claimed belonging to Unreserved
Category and exceeds the maximum age limit of 35 years
prescribed for the candidates belonging to Unreserved
Category. The candidate has claimed age relaxation admissible
to the Central/UT Govt. employees. To claim age-relaxation,
she submitted experience certificate claiming experience of 11
Years 01 Months and 23 days as TGT-English in Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya. That Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV)
OA No. 46/373/2023
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SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Human
Resource Development, Govt. of India and the employee
working in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, cannot be treated as
Central/U.T. Government Servants. Hence, the experience
certificate submitted by the applicant for working in Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya is not relevant for the purpose of claiming
age relaxation admissible to the Central/UT Govt. employees.
Accordingly, the candidature of the applicant was cancelled by
the respondents. Therefore, the action of the replying
respondent in rejecting the candidature of the applicant is just,
bona fide and within its jurisdiction and there is no illegality or
infirmity therein.

4. Learned counsel for the Applicant has reiterated the
averments made in rejoinder and submitted that the decision
making process for recruiting in the post of Vice Principal in
Education Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi vide
Advertisement No.10/2022 published on 28.05.2022 was
vitiated by arbitrariness, bias and mala fide as the applicant
was denied the opportunity to participate in the interview of the
recruitment process by stating that her experience in Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya would not be considered for age relaxation
OA No. 46/373/2023
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SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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vide email dated 28.11.2023. Though the age of the applicant
was 38 years, 11 months, 8 days but the applicant is eligible
to claim age-relaxation which is to be given to every Central
Government employees as she was working under Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya as a TGT Teacher where the applicant has
been working since 2012 and she has more than 10 years of
experience as a permanent employee of the school. Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya is an autonomous organization under the
Ministry of Education, Govt. of India where she was drawing
salary from the Govt. of India and when an organization is
formed by the Central Govt. and its Salary is also given by
Central Govt., then, that corporation or organization comes
under the purview of “State” as laid down in the Article 12 of
the Constitution of India. The State includes the Government
and Parliament of India and the Government, and the
Legislature of each of the States and all local or other
authorities within the territory of India or under the Central
control of the Government of India. The meaning of “Other
Authorities" under Article 12 can be interpreted by looking at
lead case laws such as– in the case of Rajasthan State
Electricity Board v. Mohanlal, AIR 1967, wherein it was decided
that “other authorities is wide enough to include within it every
OA No. 46/373/2023
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SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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authority created by a statute on which powers are conferred
to carry out governmental or quasi-governmental functions and
functioning within the territory of India or under the control of
the Government of India."

Learned counsel for the applicant has submitted that
the respondents have failed to establish as to how the Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya does not come under purview of “State”
and how the employees are not Central/UT Govt. employees
when they are drawing the salary as well as directly controlled
and managed by the Central Govt. itself. All rules applicable to
any central government employee is also applicable to the
Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti employee. The Hon’ble Education
Minister is the Executive Head of the Navodaya Vidyalaya
Samiti. As such, this Court may direct the respondents to allow
the applicant's candidature and consider her Jawahar
Navodaya Experience as valid work experience and thus give
her the requisite age relaxation and accept her candidature for
the Vacancy No. 22051009328.

5. We have heard the parties and perused the records.
OA No. 46/373/2023
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SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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6. Counsel for the respondents, at the outset, raised a
preliminary objection that the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti is
not a govt. body rather the same is an autonomous body and
therefore, service rendered therein is not eligible for
consideration of age relaxation. Learned counsel for the
respondents relied upon the order passed by the Coordinate
Bench of this Tribunal i.e. Principal Bench in OA No.
2120/2020 titled Poonam Chaudhary Vs. Govt. of NCT and
others dated 02.02.2024 as well as Order dated 07.02.2025
passed in O.A. No. 1840/2016. The relevant para 10 of the said
judgment passed in O.A. No. 2120/2020 reads as under:-
“10. The applicant belongs to OBC category. Admittedly on
the cutoff date, she was over aged by 7 years, 07 months
and 08 days. By virtue of being an OBC candidate, she was
entitled to age relaxation of 3 years but even after granting
the same, she was still over aged by 4 years 7 months and 8
days. Therefore, she has claimed remaining age relaxation
for the number of years (subject a maximum of 5 years) she
has been on contractual employment with SCERT. The
respondents have rejected the candidature of the applicant
on the ground that her working on contractual basis was with
SCERT and not with the Directorate of Education. To clarify,
the advertisement notice itself finds mention under the Post
code 95/17 page 30 of the paper book that the guest/contract
teacher relaxation in upper age was extended as a one-time
measure up to the actual time spent as a guest/contractual
teacher in the Directorate of Education, subject to a maximum
of five years. The issue before is whether the employment of
the applicant on contractual basis with SCERT would be
rendered as per employment with the Directorate of
Education or not. Learned counsel for the applicant has taken
us through the record in support of her claim. She has
primarily argued that SCERT is a creation of the State, though
an autonomous body under the Societies Registration Act in
May 1988. It receives its funds from GNCT of Delhi under the
OA No. 46/373/2023
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SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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Grants-in-Aid Scheme. The Directorate of Education in in fact
the administrative department of SCERT and, therefore, is
part of the GNCTD for obvious reasons as explained by her.”

7. It is noted that the applicant claimed belonging to
Unreserved Category but her age exceeds the maximum age
limit of 35 years prescribed for the candidates belonging to UR
category as per the Advertisement. It was found during the
scrutiny that the date of birth of the applicant is 08.07.1985
and as on closing date of application for the post i.e.,
16.06.2022, her age was 38 Years, 11 Months and 08 Days,
whereas the maximum age limit prescribed for the candidates
belonging to UR Category was 35 years. Further, the experience
certificate submitted by the applicant for working in Jawahar
Navodaya Vidyalaya is not relevant for the purpose of claiming
age-relaxation admissible to the Central/UT Govt. employees
as the Samiti is neither a State nor a Central Govt. School;
therefore, the applicant cannot be granted age relaxation as a
departmental candidate. Further, the Navodaya Vidyalaya
Samiti is an autonomous body, receiving funds from the
Central Govt., yet it remains an independent autonomous body
registered under the Societies Registration Act. Consequently,
it cannot be considered a part of the Central Government.
Therefore, applicant cannot be considered a departmental
OA No. 46/373/2023
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SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR

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candidate and granted age relaxation for the service rendered
by them in the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.

8. For the foregoing reasons and discussions, the
instant OA lacks merit and deserves to be dismissed.
Accordingly, the OA is dismissed being devoid of merit. Pending
M.A.(s), if any, stand disposed of.

9. Interim order, if any, stands vacated.

10. No order as to costs.



(MALLIKA ARYA) (RAJINDER SINGH DOGRA)
MEMBER (A) MEMBER (J)

/SK/
OA No. 46/373/2023
Digitally signed by
SOURABH
SOURABH
KUMAR
KUMAR