1. The petitioner before this Court being aggrieved by an order dated 11th July, 2007 passed by the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as the MPPSC) by which his candidature for the post of Lecturer, Textile Design has been rejected has filed this present petition for issuance of appropriate writ or order or direction directing the respondents to permit the petitioner to participate in the process of selection by granting the benefit of the age relaxation in the upper age limit as he has served the State of Madhya Pradesh initially as the part-time Lecturer, Textile Design and thereafter as the Guest Faculty in the same subject at Government Women Polytechnic College, Gwalior.

2. The contention of the petitioner is that he is holding the recognized Bachelor Engineering degree as well as the Master of Technology degree and, in the year 2000, an advertisement was issued by the respondent No.3, the Principal, Government Women Polytechnic College, Gwalior inviting the applications for the academic session 2000-01 for the post of part-time Lecturer, Textile Design against a vacant post of Lecturer, Textile Design. The petitioner pursuant to the aforesaid advertisement submitted his application and as he was possessing the qualifications prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education, he was selected for the post of Lecturer, Textile Design (part-time) by an order dated 20th August, 2001. The petitioner thereafter has continued as the Lecturer (part-time) and later on the designation of the post was changed and he is continuing as the Guest Faculty (Lecturer) in the subject of Textile Design. The petitioner is still continuing as the Guest Faculty in the subject of Textile Design at the Government Women Polytechnic College, Gwalior. Relevant certificates to this effect certifying the continuance of the petitioner as the part-time lecturer/guest faculty (lecturer) in the subject of Textile Design are enclosed as Annexure P-4 and Annexure P-5. It has been further stated by the petitioner that the State Government in order to fill up the vacant post of lecturer has requested the MPPSC and the MPPSC has thereafter issued an advertisement dated 7th November, 2005 (Annexure P-2) inviting the applications for various posts and one unreserved vacancy for the post of Lecturer, Textile Design was published and the qualification prescribed for the aforesaid post was a recognized degree in Bachelor of Engineering in the concerned subject with first division. The petitioner contends that he possesses the requisite qualification for the aforesaid post as not only he is holding the bachelor degree in Engineering but also a master of technology degree in the subject concerned. It has been further stated that an application for appointment was submitted in the prescribed format, however, to his utter surprise by an order dated 11th July, 2007, his candidature has been rejected by the MPPSC on the ground that he is over age. The petitioner at the time when the advertisement was issued by the MPPSC was aged about 37 years 24 days and, therefore, the MPPSC was of the opinion that the petitioner is over age as per the advertisement and the recruitment rules. The contention of the petitioner is that he is working right from the academic session 2000-01 as part-time Lecturer and still continuing in service as the guest faculty and, therefore, his application should not have been dismissed on being over age and, the necessary relaxation should have been granted in his case.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner has argued before this Court that the Schedule II of the advertisement provides for age relaxation for a period of seven years upto a maximum period of seven years to a retrenched Government servant and his case stands on better footing than the retrenched Government servant, and, therefore, age relaxation should be granted to him.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner in support of his conte