Ramesh Chandra Bhatt vs State Of Uttarakhand And Others

Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J

This intra-court appeal is filed by writ petitioner, challenging judgment and order dated 18.03.2016 passed by learned Single Judge in Writ Petition (S/ S) No. 553 of 2016. By the said judgment, claim staked by writ petitioner for benefit of age relaxation on the strength of an Office Memo dated 07.02.2008 was rejected.

Admittedly, writ petitioner had completed 49 years on the date on which vacancies on the post of Assistant Teacher (L.T. Grade) in Government Primary School were advertised, i.e. 17.02.2016. The Service Rules applicable for the said post provide that upper age limit for appointment would be 42 years, relaxable upto 05 years in favour of candidates belonging to SC/ ST and OBC category.

The writ petitioner belongs to OBC category, therefore, the upper age limit, relexable for him, was for 05 years. Since petitioner had completed 49 years, therefore, he had crossed the age bar.

Law is well-settled that in case of conflict between Recruitment Rules and Government Order, the Recruitment Rules would prevail.

Since the Government Order (Office Memo) relied upon by petitioner was not issued under the statutory powers available to the State Government under the recruitment rules, and the condition of recruitment rules regarding upper age limit was not relaxed in favour of petitioner, therefore, reliance placed by petitioner upon Government Order (Office Memo) dated 07.02.2008 for claiming benefit of age relaxation was rightly repelled by learned Single Judge.

We concur with the view taken by learned Single Judge, thus, there is no scope for interference. The Special Appeal fails and is dismissed.