IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA. CWP (T) Nos. 6473 & 6491 of 2008. Date of decision 12.11.2010. CWP (T) No. 6473 of 2008 Santosh Kumar Sood & another. ....Petitioners. Versus State of H.P. & others. ....Respondents. CWP (T) No. 6491 of 2008 Biri Singh & another. ....Petitioners. Versus State of H.P. & others. ....Respondents. Hon'ble Mr. Justice: V.K. Sharma, Judge. Whether approved for reporting? For the Petitioners: Mr. Ranjan Sharma. For the respondents: Ms Ruma Kaushik, Addl. A.G., for respondents No. 1 to 3. Mr. Shashi Shirshoo, for respondents 4 & 5. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Justice V.K. Sharma, J. (oral): The petitions have been filed on the following identical prayers:- i) That the respondent Board may be directed to consider and to appoint the applicants as Junior Engineer (Electrical) forthwith. ii) That the respondent Board may be directed to give all consequential benefits like seniority and back wages to the applicants w.e.f. the date the respondent Board appoints the persons of 1983 batch and junior Engineer (Electrical) forthwith. iii) That the action of the Respondent Board in treating the applicants as ineligible for appointment as Junior engineer (Elec) on the basis of having crossed upper age limit of 38 years may kindly be declared, unfair, unjust, illegal, discriminatory, malafide, unconstitutional and thus violative of Articles 14, 16 & 21 of the Constitution of India. iv) That the respondent Board may be directed to invoke the “relaxation principle” in the case of the applicants and then to considered and appoint the applicants as JE (Elec) forthwith. v) That the prescription of the age limit of 18-38 years in the case of the applicant, by the Respondent Board, while making batch wise appointment to the post of Junior Engineer (Elec) may kindly be declared illegal, arbitrary and based on no classification/invalid classification, may kindly be declared ultra-vires of the Constitution of India.” 2. In the identical replies filed on behalf of respondents No. 4 and 5, the following stand has been taken vide para (iv) of the preliminary submissions:- “In context, the replying respondents submit with utmost respect that the H.P. State Electy. Board is a body corporate incorporated U/S-5 of the Statute namely Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 having perpetual succession and a common seal with powers to acquire and hold property both moveable and immoveable. Section 79 of the Act ibid empowers the HPSEB-Board to make its rules and Regulations. It is the respectful submission of the replying respondents that in exercise of its powers to frame rules and regulations etc. the replying respondents have since framed Recruitment and Promotion Regulations for all the categories of employees including the category of Junior Engineers. According to the provisions of R&P Regulati9ons, 1980 a copy of which is placed on record as Annexure RA-I, 80% posts are to be filled in by direct recruitment and amongst the personals having Matric as basic qualification with diploma in Elect. Engineering from the recognised institution (and within the age group of 18-27). However lateron the Govt. of Himachal Pradesh (Respondent No.1) in exercise of powers vested under article 309 of the constitution and in consultation with the H.P. Public Service Commission amended H.P. Civil Service Bharti (Adhiktam Ayu Seema) Nimavali Rules 1980 vide its notification dated 27.3.98 Annexure RA-II and substituted ge limit for direct recruitment in class-III & IV services to 38 years, relaxable for SC/ST/Other categories to the extent permissible under the general and special orders of the State Govt. issued from time to time. This upper age limit of 38 years was made applicable with immediate effect. These instructions raising the upper age limit to H.P. Civil Services Bharti (Adhiktam Ayu Seema) as contained in above notification were also made applicable in the respondent Board vide its office memorandum dated 18.5.98 Annexure RA-II. Among these posts 20% of the posts are to be filled in by promotion from amongst the Surveyors having 5 years regular service & ITI certificate in the trade of Surveyor. Out of the above 80% direct quota for recruitment 50% posts are to be filled in on batchwise basis, as is evident from the perusal of notification dated 3.8.98 a copy of which is placed on record as Annexure RA- III. The replying respondents have since started the process to recruit Junior Engineers against 50% quota for batch-wise and the vacancies were notified to the Employment Exchange, H.P. on 5.8.99, specifically mentioning therein the age limit for recruitment between 18 to 38 years as per Annexure RA-IV. The employment exchanges have since sponsored the names of the candidates on batchwise basis and consequently the replying respondents had fixed the dates i.e. 25th and 26th 11.99 for verification of the documents/testimonials of the candidates. It is also the respectful submission of the replying respondents that no dates have yet been fixed for the interview/test etc. and thus there was no question of declaration of the result of the same at this stage as wrongly averred by the applicants. The applicants herein will have the right of consideration of their candidature, but cannot seek their selection as a matter of right in as such as the selection is to be made by the competent authority considering all the aspects of the recruitment process in accordance with the R&P Regulations. The action of the replying respondents is perfectly legal, intravires bonafide one and consequently warrants no interference by this Ld. Tribunal.” 3. Admittedly, this case relates to batch-wise recruitment of Junior Engineers (Electrical) in the State Electricity Board for which, as per Rules, the upper age limit vide Annexures RA-1 and RA-III is 18 to 38 years. Judicial notice of the fact that upper age limit for Government employment in Himachal Pradesh has since been raised up to the age of 48 years as is also apparent from letter dated 28.11.1998, Annexure- A-12. It is also not disputed that in some departments such as Ayurveda, it has further been raised up to 52 years. It is also submitted that the upper age limit of 38 years has been relaxed by the respondent-Board in some cases earlier vide letter No. HPSEB-CEP/104-7 (Interview)/99-13081-13165, dated 5.1.2000, addressed to “All the Regional/District Employment Officers/Indora & Employment Exchanges in H.P.” by the Chief Engineer, HPSEB, Shimla, a copy of which has also been brought on record by the petitioners. 4. In view of the above, the petitions are disposed of with a direction to respondents No. 4 and 5 to consider the case of the petitioners for appointment as Junior Engineers (Electrical) on batch-wise basis in relaxation of upper age limit as has already been done in the case of similarly situate persons in terms of the aforesaid letter, dated 5.1.2000, as also the existing policy of the State Government in this regard within a period of two months from today on production of a certified copy of this judgment by the petitioners within 15 days. 5. With these observations, the writ petitions are disposed of, so also the pending application(s), if any. (V.K. Sharma) Judge. 12th November, 2010 (KCK)