Service with Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti does not qualify for Central Government employee age relaxation.

The applicant, a TGT employed by Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), applied for recruitment to the post of Vice Principal in the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi.

After qualifying in the recruitment test, her candidature was rejected at scrutiny because the UPSC found her over the prescribed upper-age limit and held that her JNV experience did not qualify her for age relaxation available to Central/UT Government employees.

The applicant contended that JNV was under Central Government control and that her service should count for the relaxation; she also relied on Article 12 of the Constitution and Rajasthan State Electricity Board v. Mohan Lal.

The Tribunal recorded her date of birth as 8 July 1985 and the application closing date as 16 June 2022, but stated her age on the closing date as 38 years, 11 months and 8 days.

Whether service in JNV qualified the applicant for age relaxation available to Central/UT Government employees in the recruitment for Vice Principal

Whether the UPSC’s rejection of the applicant’s candidature on the ground that she exceeded the age limit was liable to be set aside

The recruitment prescribed a maximum age of 35 years for unreserved candidates, and the age relaxation claimed by the applicant was for Central/UT Government employees.

The Tribunal treated Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti as an autonomous body registered under the Societies Registration Act, rather than as part of the Central Government; accordingly, employment with the Samiti did not make the applicant a departmental candidate eligible for the claimed relaxation.

The applicant invoked Article 12 and Rajasthan State Electricity Board v. Mohan Lal, but the Tribunal did not rely on that submission to determine eligibility.

It also recorded the respondents’ reliance on Poonam Chaudhary v. Government of NCT and an order in OA No. 1840/2016.

The Tribunal accepted the respondents’ position that the applicant’s JNV service could not be treated as Central/UT Government service for the purpose of age relaxation.

It found that the Samiti’s autonomous status meant the applicant could not be considered a departmental candidate, notwithstanding that the Samiti received Central Government funds.

As the applicant was found to exceed the prescribed age limit and her JNV experience did not qualify her for the claimed relaxation, the Tribunal held that the challenge to rejection of her candidature lacked merit.

Any interim order was vacated; pending miscellaneous applications were disposed of, with no order as to costs.