JUDGMENT

1. By this common order, W.P. No.27271/2022 filed by Ramkumar Dangi, W.P. No.27024/2022 filed by Sachin Agrawal and others and W.P. No.28721/2022 filed by Anjulata Shivhare and another shall also be decided.

2. For the sake of convenience, the pleadings of W.P. No.27271/2022 filed by Ram Kumar Dangi shall be considered.

3. This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed seeking following relief:- It is most humbly prayed to Hon'ble Court to direct the respondent no. 2 re-open the portal for filing the exam form. Or, direct the respondent to conduct the exam, and issue the notification for session 2023, so that petitioner may not be discriminated.

4. The petitioner is a practicing Lawyer and is interested for participating in the recruitment process for the post of Assistant District Prosecution Officer (ADPO). At present, the petitioner is aged about 47 years. It is the case of the petitioner that since last 7 years, no examination has been conducted for the post of ADPO. On 17/6/2021 examination was notified and the last date for submission of application form was 16/7/2021, but the said date has been extended and examination is now fixed for 18/12/2022. It is submitted that on 18/9/2022, the GAD has issued a circular No.F-07-46/2021/A.PR./1 and granted age relaxation of 3 years to the aspirants who are interested in participating in the recruitment to the various posts of State Government. The said circular was issued in the light of the difficulties due to Covid-19 Pandemic. It is submitted that the petitioner belongs to OBC category and upper age limit for appearing in the examination of ADPO is 45 years for OBC candidate. If the petitioner is granted relaxation of three years in the light of circular dtd. 18/9/2022, then he would become eligible to participate in the examination. However, the portal is not being opened for filling up the examination form. Thus, it is the case of the petitioner that because of non-holding of examination for the post of ADPO for the last seven years, legitimate right of the petitioner to participate in the recruitment to the said post has been taken away which is violative of Article 16 of the Constitution of India. Furthermore, once the State Government has decided that the relaxation of three years shall be given in respect of all government jobs in the light of Covid-19 Pandemic, then non-extension of same benefits to the advertisement in question is bad in law.

5. The respondent No. 2 has filed its return and submitted that the examination of ADPO, 2021 has been scheduled to be held on 18/12/2022. MPPSC has issued an advertisement for recruitment to the post of ADPO and the last date for filling up the examination form was 16/7/2021. On 30/5/2022 corrigendum was issued for filling up the examination form as per the directions issued by the Court vide order dtd. 8/3/2022 passed in W.P. No.5096/2022 for those candidates who belong to other States. As per the directions dtd. 08/02/2022 issued by the Division Bench of this Court in W.P. No.2108/2022, age relaxation of 5 years has been granted to EWS category and as per the corrigendum, 10 days further time was granted to fill up the examination form up to 17/6/2022. As per the condition No. 6 of the advertisement, minimum eligible age is 21 years, whereas the maximum eligible age is 40 years as on 1/1/2022. The petitioner belongs to OBC category and, therefore, the maximum age for OBC candidate is 45 years.

6. So far as the circular dtd. 18/9/2022 is concerned, it will have prospective effect and