- #1: UPSC age/attempt relaxation: DoPT elaborates further:
- Unofficial notes about age/attempt limit
- Q. what about IFoS exam?
- Q. What about JK residents and Ex-Servicemen?
- Q. Do Central service employees get additional age/attempt relaxation?
- Q. What counts as attempt?
- Q. When is the age counted? 1st August or 1st January?
- Q: is this age/attempt limit also valid for 2015, 2016, 2017? or is it only for 2015?
- Q. Creamy LAYER OBC = General = 6 attempts & 32 years
- Q: Changing category in between exams = permitted
- Q. Jat reservation in UPSC exam
- Non-cream layer jat outside those 9 states= General
- #2: Indian Engineering Service
- #3: NDA/NA Exam-I 2013 cutoffs
#1: UPSC age/attempt relaxation: DoPT elaborates further:
Feb 2014: Government approved two extra attempt for all categories in IAS/IPS exam (click me). But that notification was creating some confusion.
March 2014: now Department of Personnel and training (DoPT) issued a separate circular to elaborate the matter further. click me for the circular
Moral of that story circular is following:
General category
| before | AFTER | |
| attempt limit | 4 | 4+2 = 6 years |
| age limit | 30 years | 30+2=32 years |
OBC category
| before | AFTER | |
| attempt limit | 7 | 7+2=9 |
| age limit | 33 | 33+2=35 years |
SC/ST category
| before | AFTER | |
| attempt limit | unlimited | unlimited |
| age limit | 35 | 35+2=37 years |
PH category
| PH candidate from | before | AFTER | |
| PH from General/OBC category | attempt limit | 7 | 7+2=9 |
| age limit | 40 |
|
|
| PH from SC/ST category | attempt limit | unlimited | unlimited |
| age limit | 40 | SC/ST PH: 35+12=47 years |
Unofficial notes about age/attempt limit
These are not given in the official circular, but frequently asked by readers. So I’m replying these based on the previous trend/system/rules of UPSC.
Q. what about IFoS exam?
Q. does this relaxed age/attempt limit also applicable in Indian forest services (IFoS) exam?
Ans. No. This relaxation only applies to Civil service exam (IAS/IPS).
Forest service (IFoS) is a separate exam- its age/attempt limit is counted separately. Only the preliminary exam of IAS and IFoS are common. Therefore, we should continue assuming that IFoS age/attempt=old system remains. (unless UPSC notification changes it on 17th May 2014.)
Q. What about JK residents and Ex-Servicemen?
Ans. Since the circular is silent about them. We can assume the old system continues for them. However, every JK and Ex-serviceman can also be classified under Gen/OBC/SC-ST/PH. and therefore benefits / gets hurts accordingly (depends on how UPSC interprets it!). For example:
| Before | after | |
| J&K resident (SC/ST) | 30+10=40 |
|
I believe in view point #1. Let’s wait for the notification on 17th May.
Q. Do Central service employees get additional age/attempt relaxation?
Ans.
- No, for the IAS/IPS (Civil service exam).
- Yes, for CAPF (Assistant commandant exam)
Q. What counts as attempt?
- Appearing in the preliminary exam, count as attempt.
- Meaning, in past, if you had filled up the UPSC application form, but you remained ABSENT in the preliminary exam=> then it doesn’t count as attempt.
- If you wrote the preliminary exam, it counts as attempt. – Irrespective of whether you passed or failed.
Q. When is the age counted? 1st August or 1st January?
- Traditionally, UPSC civil service exam counted the age on 1st august of the given year.
- In Indian Engineering service exam, they count age on 1st January. But UPSC still silent on whether they’ll follow the same model for IAS/IPS exam or not? RTIs don’t reveal anything.
- So until any change is officially notified (on 17th May 2014), we should assume that for IAS/IPS (Civil service exam) exam, the Age limit is counted on 1st August.
- Meaning, as a general category candidate if you want to appear in 2014’s exam, YOU must not have crossed the 32 years on 1st August 2014.
Q: is this age/attempt limit also valid for 2015, 2016, 2017? or is it only for 2015?
Ans. I don’t know. And RTI is unlikely to reveal anything. Most likely the DoPT and UPSC will reply that “CPIO cannot predict the future course of action.”
Anyways, official notification of UPSC, will come on 17th May 2015. Hopefully that should throw some light. [This scenario is similar to optional subjects- no one knows when it’ll be removed from the mains exam, we can only come up with conspiracy theories.]
Q. Creamy LAYER OBC = General = 6 attempts & 32 years
- From above table, you can see OBC gets 9 attempts and 35 years.
- But that applies only to non-creamy layer OBC.
- It doesn’t apply to creamy layer OBC.
- for age/attempt limit: the creamy layer OBC is treated as General category candidate (meaning 6 attempt, 32 years).
In other words,
| OBC type | age limit | attempt limit |
| non-creamy layer | 35 | 9 |
| creamy layer | 32 | 6 |
How/why? Well observe the following screenshot of 2013’s application form. The UPSC form is designed in such way that creamy layer has to tick “General” category.
click me to enlarge
I repeat again, to claim OBC reservation benefit in UPSC, you need TWO certificates:
- OBC caste certificate
- Non-creamy layer certificate.
- Non creamy layer status depends on your parents’ income and property.
- It doesn’t depend on your income/property
- It doesn’t depend on your husband/wife’s income/property.
- If your mom/dad is government employee then INCOME criteria doesn’t apply. (e.g. if dad is class3 employee, then it doesn’t matter whether he gets 6 lakhs or 7 lakhs. You’re still non-cream layer. For more, read this PDF file click me)
Q: Changing category in between exams = permitted
Q. I had applied as general category in xyz year’s exam. But for 2014, I want to apply as OBC/SC/ST candidate. Is this permissible?
Ans. Yes. As long as you’ve the necessary documents. example, candidate gives 2012’s exam as gen and 2013’s as OBC.
Q. Jat reservation in UPSC exam
Q. This week (March 2014), cabinet cleared the file. So it’ll take some weeks before gazette notification is released. Only after that, local tehsildar/SDM/collector office will start issuing certificates. Can I claim reservation in in UPSC?
Ans. You’ve to keep two things in mind:
#1: closing date in normal circumstances:
- In UPSC exams, The closing date fixed for the receipt of the application is be treated as the date for determining the OBC status (including that of creamy layer) of the candidate.
- For 2014: UPSC prelim application starts from 17 May 2014 and ends at 16 June 2014.
- So, 16/06/2014 is the closing date.
#2: closing date in extra-ordinary circumstances:
(quoting UPSC notification from 2013): There may be a few cases where there was a little gap (say 2-3 months) between the issuance of a Government Notification enlisting a particular community in the list of any of the reserved communities and the date of submission of the application by the candidate. In such cases the request of change of community from general to reserved may be considered by the Commission on merit. In case of a candidate unfortunately becoming physically disabled during the course of the examination, the candidate should produce valid documents to enable the Commission to take a decision in the matter on merit.
–end of copy paste–
Non-cream layer jat outside those 9 states= General
OBC list is always “State-wise”. Cabinet has cleared OBC status only for the jats of nine states viz. Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
Meaning only the (non-creamy layer) Jats of those states will get OBC age/attempt benefit.
Consider this hypothetical situation:
A Jat candidate, who originally belongs to Madhya Pradesh but currently living in Delhi for last few months, to study in a coaching class. = No, he doesn’t get OBC reservation UNLESS he can prove that he is a domicile of Delhi. Meaning, he needs to show birth certificate, proof-of-resident/ration card/lightbill/phone bill etc.
If I recall correctly, Delhi sarkaar wants domicile proof that you/your parents are living in Delhi since 1993, only then you can get OBC certificate.
Moral of the story: you must have two certificates.
- OBC certificate (depends on state.)
- non-creamy layer certificate (depends on your parents’ income/property. BUT for government servent parents- it doesn’t depend on income but rank.)
Moving to the next topics:
#2 and #3 are based on RTI reply filed by Mr.Prashant Kumar.
#2: Indian Engineering Service
Q1. Can an engineer from Computer Science/Information technology eligible to sit in the exam? if yes, then under which subject (out of the four available) they may apply?
Q2. if a computer science candidate gets selected in another subject (Electrical, etc) is there any preference given to the Electrical candidate or all must be considered equal?
UPSC replies for Q1 and Q2:
The rules of ESE-2014 are yet to be finalized. However as per the rules of 2013, degree in engineering in any steam is essential educational qualification for appearing in the engineering service examination. A candidate may apply for the admission to the examination in respect of any one of the four categories of the services/posts viz. civil engineering or mechanical engineering or electronic engineering or electronics and telecommunication engineering.
Q3. Is there any provision or discussion over inclusion of Computer Science/ IT as one of the subjects in Engineering Service Exam in the coming years?
UPSC replies:
Query is hypothetical in nature and hence does not qualify as information as defined under section 2/F of the RTI act, 2005
Q4. What is the total time from Pre-Exam to Joining for a candidate in Engineering Service?
UPSC replies:
there is no such specific timeframe between the conduct of exam and joining of the candidate. It varies from year to year
Q5. How many Computer Science/IT students have applied and got selected in Engineering Service Exam 2011 and 2012?
UPSC replies:
The information regarding the qualification of candidates is neither compiled nor maintained in the manner asked for in the application. As such the information cannot be provided.
#3: NDA/NA Exam-I 2013 cutoffs
Q1. Please provide the cutoff marks for all categories in the NDA 2013 exam?
| NDA stage | marks secured by last candidate |
| written stage | 333/900 |
| final stage | 698/1800 |
Q2. Is the NDA cutoff paper-wise or overall?
UPSC replies: There is no separate paper wise cutoff in this exam.
Ref: scanned copy of UPSC RTI reply to Mr.Prashant Kumar.
Hi Mrunal….I am a OBC candidate and my age is 32 complete as on till date…I think, I have only one year attempt left i.e. 2015….my query is
1. how many attempt i can give as per UPSC’s age limit?
2. I have withdrawn my OBC Non Creamy Layer certificate way back in April 2011. Is it that i have to apply for latest (fresh) certificate or my
old certificate will be sufficient for 2015 exam.
Awaiting for your positive reply….Thanks
ek bar fir andolan ke liye taiyar ho jao
Respected sir,
My D.O.B is 11.01.1981, can I’m eligible for civil services.
sir i have passed june net exam 2014, from OBC category is the NCL certificate of sept 2014-march 2014 is valid
sir i have passed june net exam 2014, from OBC category is the NCL certificate of sept 2014-march 2017is valid
Mrunal bhai i read in nav bharath times few months ago that the govt is planning to reduce the age limit and attempt limit on recommendation of 2nd ARC ! Yesterday the same was posted in shankar ias page in facebook. Is it true ? has the decision been taken or it is just blatant ?
this is a very horrifyic condition of civil service aspirants regarding the bar on age limit right now I am in big shock to listen to this .oh god this is un fair for us who have crossed 28 age and struggling to give our best in our next attempts.a ray of hope is about dopt .that not to give assent to this decision of govt
hi mrunal ji,
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/centre-to-lower-age-limit-for-civil-service-aspirants/article6609797.ece.
is this true ? please clarify! :(
Never thought that the age limit can b reduced as well.it is 29 years for SC Candidate.i planed ma last 5 years fr this exam ..age 32 to 37 years.but today after this news i find me no where…gosh ..
Hi Sir,
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/centre-to-lower-age-limit-for-civil-service-aspirants/article6609797.ece
Could you please throw light on this issue, may be by writing another article on this.
I respect nigvekar recommendations, but how can the Government be so sudden in implementing it. They could have informed Earlier. There are many working guys like me who dropped the idea of writing it in 2014 even though we had filled the form, to give a well prepared attempt in 2015. Now if it is implemented, a general candidate born before 2nd Aug 1988, will not be allowed to write the exam. I seriously don’t understand what message the government want’s to send by saying it will be implemented in 2015 in the end of 2014.
So requesting you to educate us more on this.
hi Mrunal,
can u plz clarify that government primary school teachers belong to which class !!!
sir
is it true dat upsc lowered s age limit to 26 years frm 2015? i cudnt make it in 2014.it was my first attempt.im really confused…pls help me..
dear sir,
sir im a general category candidate for upsc and my date of birth is 23 July 1984…..i have given 5th attempt in 2014, because as upsc declared 2 years age relaxation and 2 extra attempts in feb 2014,so i want to ask you that am i eligible for 2015 CSP??
Mrinal sir i am a gen category ex /sm. As per last dopt order i m eligible in 2015. but if govt reduce the age then i m out. pls through some light on whether govt is going to reduce the age in 2015 prelims. positively
Hi sir I am working in state PSU as class 2 employee… But my income is less than 6 lakhs… I belong to obc category…. Can I claim the OBC reservation ? Please guide me…. Waiting for your valuable reply…. Thank you sir….
my dob is 01/07/1985, in obc category. so can i eligible for ias examination 2015. kindly give your answer.
please sir clear the news about age reduction of cse aspirant ….
I belongs to Bihar but living in Haryana since my birth with family and belongs to OBC (kahar).
My father have OBC certificate of Bihar.
How I can get obc certificate. Which Non-creamy layer certificate I am eligible- from Haryana or Bihar…
Sir,
I belong to OBC category i have already given my 4 attemptsin 2014,my DOB 21 July1984 , And my age 30 years cross
what i can gives civil services exam 2015.
please sir hamko ye janana hai ki government of decide for civil services kab tak ayega .
Did you find out whether you are eligible for 2016 ?
Sir,
I belong to OBC category i have already given my 4 attempts in 2014,my DOB 21 July1984 , And my age 30 years cross
what i can gives civil services exam 2015.
please sir hamko ye janana hai ki government of decide for civil services kab tak ayega .
Ab age limit kya hogi and how many attempts
if i appear in cds exam will it counted as an attempt of ias exam?
http://darpg.gov.in/darpgwebsite_cms/Document/file/Decision10.pdf
This is true i saw it just now…wat the hell is this…has anyone seen this..
See pt no 10
Mrunal kindly throw some light on this issue…
sir I m working in defence. I m doing preparation of IAS. how to check my preparation. please sir have any test series to get online purchase.
Sir, I have a query on my UPSC eligiblity with regards to my age for UPSC 2015 prelims exam.
Consider UPSC age limit for OBC is 33 years, and my DOB is 22/08/1981. Will I be eligible to appear for this year UPSC exam as my age is still <34 years on 1st August 2015, but its greater than 33 years by some months . Please reply.
Thanks.
Sir attempt is only counted if you fill a form, what i want to ask is that if I wrote exam in say 2012 so its an attempt but if i do not fill form in 2013 then am i still eligible for 5 attempts from 2014 onwards
DEAR SIR,
I BELONG TO SAINI CASTE WHICH COMES IN OBC IN HARYANA WILL I BE IN OBC IF MY HUSBAND’S STATE PUNJAB DOES NOT GIVE SAINI CASTE A OBC STATUS. VERY CONFUSING KINDLY SUGGEST
can anybody tell me, do i need to renew my caste certificate every year? i have my caste certificate ,issued this last year nov. the clerk at sdm office told me that it should me renewed if i want to use it next year after nov…please help
Mrunal sir, I need your help.. I have given my 4 th attempt in 2010 and my dob is 5 th Nov 1983. Am I eligible for IAS 2015. Plz reply soon sir it will boost up my preparation.
sir i applied upsc under gen in 2014 but i am obc if i apply in 2015 upsc will treat me as general or obc
Sir, I have a query on my UPSC eligiblity with regards to my age for UPSC 2016 prelims exam.Consider UPSC age limit for GEN is 26 years, and my DOB is 04/02/1991. Will I be eligible to appear for year 2016 UPSC exam . please help me. Please reply.
Thanks.