CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday granted relief to 67 aspirants who were not eligible to apply for the competitive recruitment examination (2022- 23) for fireman and fireman drivers owing to an upper age limit of 25 years.
The single judge bench of Justice Sashikanta Mishra asked the Fireman and Fireman Driver Recruitment Board to allow the 67 aspirants to apply for the fireman post. Hiranya Kumar Samal and 66 others had filed a petition seeking upper-age relaxation for candidates to appear in the competitive recruitment examination. Advocate Rajib Rath made submissions on behalf of the petitioners.
In the interim order, Justice Mishra also asked the Board to provide them with application forms to enable them to apply manually. The Board had issued advertisements inviting applications for 826 posts of fireman on August 29, 2023. Justice Mishra issued notices to the chairman, Fireman and Fireman Driver Recruitment Board, DG of Police Fire Services and IG Police Fire Services and fixed November 6 for the next hearing on the matter.
As per the petition, the recruitment for the post of fireman in the state is being conducted after a gap of eight years. Consequently, the petitioners had during this period crossed the 25-year upper age limit. The petition also pointed out that the state government had amended the Orissa Civil Service (Fixation of Upper Age Limit) Rules, 1989 in 2022 and increased the upper age limit for applying for all civil posts to 32.