UPSC Panel Recommends to Reduce Upper Age Limit for Civil Service

Some might argue against and many in favour but Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) appointed committee is all set to ask the government of India to reduce the upper age limit for taking exams and getting into the premier civil services such as IAS and IPS. Headed by the former education secretary, BS Baswan, UPSC appointed panel last year in August.

The panel came into being after Modi government’s initiative to overhaul the existing civil services examination. Particularly, a string of protests after Manmohan Singh government introduced civil services aptitude test in the prelims exam led the present government to form the committee. Mr. Baswan is of the view that entry age is on the higher side and promised to prepare a roadmap that will help aspirants adjust to the new system.

Over the last couple of decades, the upper age limit for general category candidates to apply for the UPSC has risen from 24 years in 1960s to 32 in 2014. In addition to this, candidates with schedule caste and schedule tribe background get five years of relaxation, while aspirants from other backward classes get three years upper age limit relaxation. Further, physically challenged candidates get an additional relaxation of 10 years.

The fact that in 2012 and 2013, 6-11 percent of the candidates who cleared the test were 30 and more years of age is worth noticing here. Training academies and government officials who are responsible for converting candidates into successful civil servants are arguing to lower the entry-level age. The potential argument they put in the favour is that civil servants past 30s find it difficult to internalise the core values and settle in a framework considered the sole of civil services.    

Recommending lowering the upper age limit might be easy for the commission, but it won’t be an easy decision for the Modi government. Pushing and executing the reforms will be a tightrope walking as parliamentarians have protested such moves in the past.

Former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh supported the proposal but buckled down owing to the massive protest by parliamentarians. UPA government even accepted the recommendations of the second administrative reform commission’s report to reduce the entry-level age to join civil services to 26 years but ended up increasing it by two years before 2014 Lok Sabha elections were held.