CWP No. 16249 of 2011 -1- IN THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 16249 of 2011 Date of Decision: September 02, 2011 Gugan Singh Yadav …Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M. KUMAR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE GURDEV SINGH Present: Mr. Abhishek Yadav, Advocate for the petitioner. 1. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 2. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? M.M. KUMAR, J. 1. The petitioner is an ex-serviceman having retired from the Indian Air Force. His date of birth is 15.06.1958. He joined the Indian Air Force on 20.11.1976 and retired on 30.11.1991. He has filed the instant petition under Article 226 of the Constitution seeking quashing of the 2nd proviso to Rule 2 of Part A of the Punjab Civil Service (Judicial Branch) Rules, 1951 (for brevity 'the Rules') concerning the appointment of Civil Judges (Jr. Division) in Haryana. A further prayer for consequential relief has been made for quashing the Advertisement No.3 dated 20.06.2011 (P-2) alleging that the relaxation in upper age limit for the ex-servicemen has been illegally limited to maximum of 5 years, which is discriminatory and violative of Article 14 and 16(1) of the Constitution with a further prayer for issuance of direction to respondent No.2-Haryana Public Service CWP No. 16249 of 2011 -2- Commission (for brevity 'the Commission') to consider him duly eligible for recruitment to the post of Civil Judge (Jr. Division). 2. Brief facts of the case are that on 20.06.2011, the Commission issued advertisement for holding preliminary HSC (Judicial Branch) Preliminary Examination, 2011 on 04.09.2011. The petitioner has asserted that when he approached the Commission for non issuance of admit card/ roll numbers to him, he was told that since he has already crossed the upper age limit of 53 years, he would be ineligible and no admit card could be issued. The petitioner has claimed on the basis of the Government instructions dated 22.09.1999 (P-4), which has raised the age of entry into Government service that the relaxation in upper age limit for recruitment in respect of ex-servicemen would continue in accordance with the provision of earlier instructions dated 15.07.1970. In other words, the candidates belonging to Ex-servicemen may be recruited upto the age of 40 years plus continuous military service added by three years (P-4). 3. Mr. Abhishek Yadav, learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that the advertisement grants age relaxation for the NCC candidates to the extent of service rendered by them plus three years and there is no upper age limit for such relaxation, but for the ex-servicemen, the upper age limit of 5 years has been prescribed, which is clearly violative of equality principles enshrined under Article 14 and 16(1) of the Constitution because the ex-servicemen who are similarly situated has been granted the relaxation of upper age limit CWP No. 16249 of 2011 -3- upto 5 years. The argument is wholly without substance because no such relaxation is available to the whole time Cadet Instructor in the NCC. Moreover, it has been clarified by the petitioner that whole time Cadet Instructor in the NCC are kept for initial extended tenure, which is limited. Even otherwise, no example of a candidate is cited who might have been given relaxation as per provision made in the advertisement. In any case, the ex-servicemen who were retired after rendering full-fledged service cannot claim parity with the NCC Instructor in the matter of relaxation of age as both the services are entirely different. The whole time Cadet Instructor in the NCC are employed only for a short term and not upto the age of superannuation. 4. As a sequel to the above discussion, we are of the view that petition does not warrant admission and the same is hereby dismissed. (M.M. KUMAR) JUDGE (GURDEV SINGH) JUDGE September 02, 2011 Atul