The Orissa High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed in 2017 that challenged a state government notification revising the upper age limit eligibility criteria for the engagement of Sikshya Sahayaks.

The School and Mass Education department issued the notification on December 26, 2016, which lowered the upper age limit for the position from 42 years to 32 years and introduced a requirement of a minimum of 50 percent marks at the graduation level. The petitioner, a BEd-qualified individual who passed the Odisha Teachers Eligibility Test (OTET), argued that the new criteria made them ineligible despite meeting the qualifications under the previous guidelines.

According to the case record, the upper age limit had remained at 42 years since the scheme’s inception in 2000 until August 2013. Advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy, representing the petitioner, argued that applying the revised criteria to vacancies from previous years was arbitrary and violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. They also stated that the petitioner had a “legitimate expectation” of being considered under the earlier norms.

However, in opposition, the state government asserted that the notification was lawful and within its authority. In the judgment delivered on March 20, the single judge bench of Justice Chittaranjan Dash ruled that the revised upper age limit of 32 years was in accordance with the Orissa Civil Service (Fixation of Upper Age Limit) Rules, 1989.