Ranchi: Chief minister Hemant Soren on Saturday announced that 2022 instead of 2026 would be taken as the upper age limit for aspirants of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) civil services examinations.The CM made the announcement during the proceedings of the state assembly.The move follows repeated demands by a section of aspirants for declaration of 2018 as the cut-off year in order to decide the upper age.Some aspirants had approached the Jharkhand high court (HC) on the issue. The HC on February 12 ordered the JPSC to accept the application forms of around 22 aspirants, though it did not decide upon the cut-off year. The JPSC sent links to these candidates to enable them to fill in the forms.Later, around 250 candidates also approached the court. Hearing their prayers jointly, the HC on Friday asked the JPSC to provide them with a similar opportunity.A JPSC official said, “Following the direction from the personnel department, the JPSC would extend the last date to accept the forms from the aspirants eligible under the new eligibility criteria.”An “unhappy” Jharkhand State Students’ Association president Satyanarayan Shukla said, “Tens of thousands would be deprived of taking the exam. We request the state govt to declare 2018 as the cut-off date to calcuate the upper age limit of JPSC civil services aspirants, keeping in view the principle of equity.”
