PHC grants age relaxation to civil judge candidate

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has granted permission to a candidate who is a few months older than the advertised age limit to sit for the written exam for the civil judge position.

On Monday, a division bench comprising Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice SM Attique Shah heard a writ petition filed by Shoaib Khan. According to his lawyer, Zia-ur-Rahman Tajik, the K-P Public Service Commission advertised 84 civil judge posts on April 3, 2023, and Shoaib Khan applied for one of them.

However, his application was initially rejected because he exceeded the age limit by 3 months and 7 days. Subsequently, the applicant requested the PHC chief justice, the court registrar, and the commission to grant him an age relaxation, which was not accepted.

The matter was then referred to the PHC. In his writ petition, he pointed out that according to Rule 6(8) of the Judicial Service Rules of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, candidates can be granted an age relaxation of up to 3 years.

He cited a 2017 case when the PHC chief justice had granted age relaxation in similar cases, allowing candidates to sit for exams.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2023.