The educational qualification and age requirements for eligibility should be fulfilled on the last date of submission of the application.

Sanjiv Khanna, J.

1. Rule 14 of Delhi Judicial Service Rules, 1970 reads as under:-

“14. A candidate shall be eligible to appear at the examination, if he is:-

a) a citizen of India;

b) a person practicing as an Advocate in India or a person qualified to be admitted as an Advocate under the Advocates Act, 1961; and

c) not more than **32 years of age on the 1st day of January following the date of commencement of the examination.”

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner, who is pursuing LLB course from the National Law University, Jodhpur and is presently in the 10th semester (final year) of the BA LLB (Hons.), should be permitted and allowed to appear in Delhi Judicial Service Examination, 2014, notified on 18th February, 2014. He submits that the requirements stipulated in clause ‘b’ of Rule 14 should be read along with the requirements stipulated in clause ‘c’ of Rule 14. Accordingly, the petitioner should be allowed and permitted to appear in the said examination as he would have qualified to be admitted as an Advocate under the Advocates Act, 1961 on or before the first day of January following the date of commencement of the examination. It is further submitted that in all probability the petitioner would be eligible for enrolling and admitted as an Advocate as on 1st June, 2014, i.e. the date on which the first or preliminary examination is to be held.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has relied upon an interim order passed by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in W.P. 5845/2014 titled Gummalla Bhasker Reddy & Others Vs. High Court of Andhra Pradesh and Another in which the respondents therein were directed to receive applications from candidates without insisting for bachelor’s degree in law as prescribed in the notification.

4. We have quoted above Rule 14 of the applicable rules. The advertisement for Delhi Judicial Examination, 2014 was published on 18th February, 2014 and the relevant portion relating to eligibility norms/requirements reads as under:-

“............A candidate shall be eligible to appear in the examination if he / she is (a) a citizen of India; (b) a person practising as an Advocate in India or a person qualified to be admitted as an Advocate under the Advocates Act, 1961; and (c) not more than 32 years of age as on 1st January, 2015 i.e. on the 1st day of January following the date of commencement of the examination. In the case of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes / Tribes, the upper age limit is relaxable by 5 years. The upper age limit is also relaxable maximum by 5 years in the case of Ex-Servicemen including Emergency Commissioned Officers and Short Service Commissioned Officers who have rendered at least 5 years military service and have been released on completion of assignment (including those whose assignment is due to be completed within 6 months) otherwise than by way of dismissal or discharge on account of misconduct or inefficiency, or on account of physical disability attributable to military service or on invalidment.”

5. The question raised in the present writ petition is whether a candidate should meet the eligibility norms/requirements prescribed in clause ‘b’ to Rule 14 at the time of submission of application or at the time when the first or preliminary examination is to be held. The second submission is that the eligibility date for the purpose of clause ‘b’ should be the same as stipulated in clause ‘c’ of Rule 14.

6. On the first aspect, we have decision of the Supreme Court in Rekha Chaturvedi Vs. University of Rajasthan and Others, 1993 Supp (3) SCC 168, wherein similar contention with regard to cut off date to determine eligibility criteria, with reference to the date of selection, date of making of application etc. was examined and it was held as under:-

“10. The contention that the required qualifications of the candidates should be examined with reference to the date of selection and not with reference to the last date for m