The court established that amendments to recruitment rules are prospective and do not affect ongoing selection processes unless explicitly stated.

JUDGMENT

Sangeet Lodha, J.

1. This writ petition has been filed by the petitioner, an aspirant for appearing in the competitive examination for Direct Recruitment to the cadre of District Judge against the vacancies belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category, notified by the respondent-Rajasthan High Court vide notification dated 05.01.2021 issued under the Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules, 2010 ('Rules of 2010'), claiming relief in the following terms:

"(i) Respondents may be directed to provide relaxation in upper age limit by five years for the candidate belonging to EWS reserved category also as has been provided to other reserved category candidates, in the matter of direct recruitment to the cadre of District Judge being made in pursuance the notification dated 05.01.2021 (Annexure-1).

(ii) Respondents may be directed to accept the application (hard copy) of the petitioner with required examination fee, for direct recruitment to the cadre of District Judge being made in pursuance the notification dated 05.01.2021 (Annexure-1).

(iii) Pleased to direct the respondents to consider the petitioner within age limit after giving the benefit of age relaxation and thereby consider him for the recruitment, selection and appointment on the basis of his merits, in the competitive examination and if found within the merit then recruit and give him appointment with consequential benefit.

(iv) Pleased to declare Rule 33 of the Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules, 2010 unconstitutional and struck down Clause-7 of the notification dated 05.01.2021 (Annexure-1) and further direct the respondents to issue corrigendum making suitable amendment giving benefit of age upper age relaxation to the candidates of EWS reserved category.

(v) Pleased to direct the respondents to make provision for relaxation of upper age limit by 5 years for the candidates belonging to reserved category of EWS, in the Rules of 2010 as well in the notification dated 05.01.2021 (Annexure 1) by issuing appropriate order and corrigendum.

(vi) Any other order or direction which this Hon'ble Court deems fit may also be passed in the facts and circumstances of the case in favour of the humble petitioners."

2. The facts relevant are that the direct recruitment to the District Judge Cadre in the State of Rajasthan is governed by Rules of 2010. Eligibility for direct recruitment to the posts of District Judge Cadre from amongst the advocates is provided under Rule 33 of the Rules of 2010. The High Court under the Rules of 2010 issued an advertisement dated 05.01.2021 inviting applications from the eligible candidates in the prescribed online format for direct recruitment to 60 vacant posts in the cadre of District Judge in accordance with the Rules of 2010. The particulars of the total vacancies and the vacancies reserved for various categories including the category of EWS were duly notified. As per the notification issued, 6 posts are reserved for EWS category, which include 1 post for women.

3. As per clause (i) of Rule 33, the candidate applying for recruitment to the post must have attained age of 35 years and must not have attained the age of 45 years on the first day of January following the last date fixed for receipt of applications. Proviso (a) to clause (i) of Rule 33 provides relaxation of five years in upper age limit to the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, More Backward Classes and Women Candidates. The relevant part of Rule 33 of the Rules of 2010 in force at the time of issuance of the notification for recruitment, may be beneficially quoted:

"33. Eligibility for direct recruitment.- For the purpose of direct recruitment under sub-rule (3) of Rule 31, applications shall be invited by the Court from those Advocates, who fulfil the following conditions of eligibility:-

(i) must have attained the age of 35 years and must not have attained the age of 45 years on the first day of January following the last date fi