SMTI ANJANA vs union public service commission (UPSC) on 22 September 2026

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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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/

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