Delay In Issuance Of Advertisement By Itself Won't Create Any Right: Patna HC Dismisses Lawyer's Plea To Relax Upper Age Limit For Participating In District Judge Recruitment

The Patna High Court dismissed a lawyer's plea seeking upper age limit relaxation in the examination of 2023.

The lawyer had sought a direction authorities to fix the cutoff date for determination of age limit at 01.01.2022 in place of 01.01.2023 in view of the fact that no advertisement was published in the recruitment year 2022 so that those who were eligible to participate in the recruitment year 2022 can participate in the recruitment year 2023.

 The Court noted that the Petitioner filed to establish any arbitrariness or infringement of his fundamental or legal rights.

“Delay in issuance of advertisement by itself will not create any right or legitimate expectation in favour of a person so as to seek relaxation in the upper age limit as prescribed for a preliminary examination”, the Bench headed by Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran and comprising Justice Rajiv Roy observed. 

Advocate Kumar Kaushik appeared for the Petitioner and Advocate Piyush Lall appeared for the Respondent.

The Petitioner, holding an LLB degree and enrolled with the Bihar State Bar Council since 2001, participated in the 2021 examination but did not pass. Claiming no advertisement in 2022, the Petitioner challenged the age restriction in the 2023 advertisement, which barred candidates not completing 35 years or already reaching 50 years by January 01, 2023. The Petitioner, born on December 5 1972 though eligible for the 2022 examination, was debarred due to the current advertisement.

Aggrieved the Petitioner approached the Court by way of a Writ Petition to quash paragraph no. 3 of Advertisement of 2023 for the appointment of District Judge (Entry Level) concerning the cutoff date for determining the maximum age limit set on January 01, 2023. The Petitioner also sought directions to fix the cutoff date for determining the age limit at January 01 2022 instead of January 01 2023, considering no advertisement was published in the recruitment year 2022, allowing eligible candidates from that year to participate in 2023.

The Court noted that the Petitioner, having participated in the 2021 examination for the post of District Judge (Entry Level) but not succeeding, failed to establish that he was denied an opportunity. Furthermore, the Court noted, “the petitioner has not shown any arbitrariness in the action of the respondent as also violation of fundamental or legal rights”.

The Bench observed that a delay in issuing advertisements does not automatically grant rights or legitimate expectations, especially regarding age limit relaxation for a preliminary examination.

Accordingly, the Court dismissed the Writ Petition.

Cause Title: Shahjahan v High Court of Judicature at Patna

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