The General Administration Department (GAD) Monday notified the upper-age limit as a one-time relaxation for the candidates to appear in Combined Competitive Examination (CCE)-2021.
The notification issued by the GAD reads, “S.O 21: In exercise of the powers conferred by fourth proviso to clause (ii) of sub-rule (1) of rule 8 of the Jammu and Kashmir hereby prescribes the upper age limit for Combined Competitive Examination -2021.”
According to the notification, the GAD states that 37 years age has been fixed for open merit candidates, for the reserved category candidates and in-service candidates the age bar has been fixed at 39 years while for the physically challenged candidates it has been kept at 40 years.
“This will be one-time relaxation, not extendable in any subsequent Combined Competitive Examination post – CCE 2021,” the GAD notification reads.
J&K Public Service Commission had recently announced 257 vacancies for Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Exams for the year-2021.
Of these 257 advertised posts, 56 have been advertised for Junior J&K Administrative Service, 141 posts for J&K Police (Gazetted) Service and 60 for J&K Accounts (Gazetted) Service.
“The one-time relaxation has been given to the candidates appearing for 257 posts advertised for CCE – 2021,” said an aspiring civil service candidate and a youth activist, Kanwal Singh.
Singh said these examinations were being conducted under SRO-103 which was implemented in 2018. Under this SRO, J&K government had adopted Union Public Service Commission pattern in the erstwhile state for State Civil Services Examination. Earlier, PSC used to conduct examinations under SRO-387.”
However, the upper age criterion was reduced to 32 years for the general category from 37 years earlier.
It triggered massive agitation from the aspirants preparing for the examination.
Kanwal said, “A committee was constituted in 2014-2015 to lay down suggestions and guidelines on whether the pattern for J&K state civil services examination should be changed in sync with UPSC or not. After deliberating it for years, in 2018 under SRO 103 UPSC pattern was adopted for state civil services examination by J&K government. This committee had then recommended that the age should not be reduced to 32 years for the candidates who would appear in the J&K’s civil service examinations.”
In view of the state-wide agitation by the aspirants, Singh said, “The J&K government then gave one-time age relaxation under a separate order without amending the age criteria clause in SRO-103. Then the coalition government gave one-time age relaxation to the candidates under SRO-274 in 2018 – age 37 for general category, 39 for reserved and in-service candidates and 40 for the physically challenged candidates.”
Opposing reduction in age from 37 years to 32 years in J&K civil services, the civil servant aspirant said, “The rest of the states like Rajasthan, Punjab and others have 37 to 40 years for general category. Why then is J&K adopting a separate criterion?”
| Open Merit | 37 years |
| Reserved categories, in service candidates | 39 years |
| Physically challenged | 40 years |