Spl educators: HC asks govt to consider age-relaxation plea of

The Delhi High Court has directed the city government to consider the plea of a man seeking age relaxation in recruitment to the post of Special Educators for differently-abled students in government schools here.
Currently, the government provides age relaxation of 10 years to female applicants while recruiting special educators.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Vipin Sanghi said that though the court has not been called upon to decide the legality of age relaxation which is exclusively based on gender it is apparent that there is a crying need to fill such posts.
The bench said it implies that all candidates who are otherwise eligible but not women should not be discriminated against, at least with their request for age relaxation.

"Concededly, this court is not called upon to decide the legality of such a blanket age relaxation, exclusively based on gender. What is apparent, however, from such general order is that the respondents themselves are alive to the fact that there is a crying need to fill the posts and need to take one general measure, identifying all female candidates being eligible for age relaxation for 10 years.
"This implies that all candidates who are otherwise eligible but are not women should not be discriminated against at least with respect to consideration of their request for age relaxation," the court said in a five-page judgement.

The verdict was delivered on the plea of Syed Mehedi, a qualified Special Educator holding BEd qualification which he acquired in 2009, who had challenged the Central Administrative Tribunal's order rejecting his plea for age relaxation in recruitment of special educators to government schools.
The court noted that the age relaxation criteria was factored into the rules as the advertisement for recruiting special educators to all government schools was taken in 2013 pursuant to the 2009 High Court order directing the same.