The Supreme Court, on March 14, relaxed the upper age limit of 32 years for the Delhi Judicial Service Examinations (DJSE) and 45 years for the Delhi Higher Judicial Service Examinations (DHJSE) of 2022 for those candidates who were eligible in 2020 and 2021 but have become age-barred this year, LiveLaw reported. 

In view of this relaxation of the upper age limit, the court has deferred the DHJSE and DJSE exams. For DJSE, the last date for applications has been extended to April 3 and the exams have been postponed to April 24. For DHJSE, the last date of application has been extended to March 26 and the exam date has been postponed to April 3. The court clarified that the age relaxation is given as a "one-time measure" for 2022, having regard for extraordinary circumstances.

The apex court granted the relaxation for the 2022 recruitments taking into account the fact that exams were not held in 2020 and 2021 due to institutional reasons and because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last exams were held in 2019. The Delhi High Court also agreed to grant this relaxation with respect to upper age limit for such candidates.

Even though the court only had to decide the issue of upper-age limit for the DJSE, it invoked the powers under Article 142 of the Constitution — a unique power to the Supreme Court to do complete justice between the parties, where at times law or statute may not provide a remedy — to extend similar upper age limit relaxation for the DHJSE as well, observing that the same principle must apply to both the exams, the media outlet reported. 

At the same time, the court upheld the minimum age criteria of 35 years for applying for DHJSE, observing that it was a policy matter. The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions in the High Court challenging the DHJSE minimum age criteria after transferring them to itself.