JKAS aspirants seek relaxation in upper age limit, revocation of SRO 103

Srinagar, Nov 1:: The aspirants of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) on Friday urged the National Conference led government to enhance the upper age limit at par with other states.

In an open letter to the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the aspirants said that the PDP led government earlier on February 23 of 2018 introduced a new SRO-103 which changed the whole JKAS exam pattern and reduced the number of attempts from unlimited to 6 and upper age limit to 32.

"The government had promised yearly exams on the pattern of UPSC. The upper age cap of 32 years was more shocking than the number of attempts because in majority of the Indian states the upper age limit is around 40 years," the aspirants said.

The aspirants said the upper age limit in Uttarakhand and Haryana was 42 while the upper age limit in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was fixed as 40 years

"The then Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam however provided an upper age limit for open merit candidates to 37 in 2018 as well as in 2021. But in 2022 then Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta reduced the upper age limit to 35 for open merit and continued for 2023 and 2024 batch of JKAS as well," the letter reads.

The aspirants said that from 2014 to 2021 only three batches of JKAS were successfully appointed in a span of seven years.

"This proved costly for the aspirant's efforts, resources and time. Many aspirants neared the upper age in this bracket of seven years," the letter reads.

The aspirants said that a new pattern under SRO 103(2018) was introduced which, they said was a draconian in itself aimed at disempowerment of youth at large.

"This SRO should be revoked at an earliest as no such pattern exists in other states of North India in particular and in general in rest of the states," the aspirants said.

The aspirants said that SRO103 was invoked only to "disempower" youth and create conditions of alienation. "The exam pattern of J&K should be at par with other states and Union territories of the country. No state has a pattern of exam like that of UPSC," it reads.

The aspirants claimed that the copy paste of syllabus and pattern of examination of UPSC under the name of SRO 103 was the biggest fraud on the system of examination in J&K.

"Invoking SRO 103 was carrying a malafide intention to disrupt the system. Before 2018 people used to qualify examinations in their 40’s and competition domain was also large thereby attracting majority of youth to the Competition," the aspirants said.

The aspirants demanded that the age criteria of 40 for OM must be fixed for JKAS and SRO 103 should be revoked once for all.

"The examination for JKAS should be held on the same lines and rules which are governing other competitive examinations meant for other lucrative services," the letter reads.