V.K.JAIN, J. - (1.)THE son of the petitioner, namely, Harsh Yadav, is studying in Class V in a Central School and his date of birth is 21.4.2003. According to the petitioner, his son is quite keen to join Rashtriya Military School (for short ,,RMS) so that he can enter Armed Forces through National Defence Academy (NDA) and has been making preparations for the entrance examination held by RMS for admission to the VI standard. Till the academic year 2013 -2014, the children in the age bracket 10 -12 years as on 1st July of the year of admission were eligible for taking admission to the RMS. However, for the academic year 2014 -2015, only the children in the age group of 10 -11 years as on 1.7.2014 are eligible for admission to the said schools. Since under the new eligibility norms, the son of the petitioner is not eligible for taking admission to RMS, his application to appear in the entrance examination has been rejected. Being aggrieved, the petitioner is before this Court with the following prayers:
"a. Quash the arbitrary and illegal order fixing the eligibility in terms of age bracket from 10 -12 years to 10 -11 years with the cut off date taken as 01.07.2014 at entry for admission to class 6 in Rashtriya Military Schools. b. Direct the respondents to follow the age guidelines as prescribed by the Ganguly Committee award. c. Quash the impugned Reject List of candidates as declared on the official website of the Rashtriya Military School for entrance examination to be conducted on 15.12.2013. d. Direct the respondents to issue Admit Card allow the son of the petitioner so as to enable him to appear in the entrance examination scheduled for 15.12.2013."

(2.)THE learned Additional Solicitor General, who appears on advance notice, has placed on record a copy of the Minutes of the 19th meeting of the Central Governing Council for RMS held on 24.8.2011. To the extent it is relevant the said minutes read as under:
"ITEM 2 Reduction in age bracket of candidates during intake in Class VI 9. Proposal. It was proposed to reduce the age bracket of candidates at Induction Stage in class VI from 10 -12 years to 10 -11 years to bring them at par with Sainik Schools. 10. Justification. (a) Present age bracket for new entrants in Class VI in RMS is 10 -12 years where as it is 10 -11 in Sainik Schools. (b) Due to this students of RMS get two chances less to appear in UPSC NDA exam as compared to Sainik School counterpart. (c) The revised age bracket will provide additional two chances as in Sainik Schools."

It would, thus, be seen that the age criteria for admission to RMS was changed so as to bring the same in line with the criteria adopted for admission to Sainik Schools. It would be pertinent to note here that the students of RMS as well as students of Sainik Schools are eligible to appear in the NDA examinations. Since it was found that on account of the age bracket for admission to RMS being 10 -12 years, the students were getting only one chance to appear in NDA examinations whereas the students of Sainik Schools, on account of their age criteria being 10 - 11 years were getting two such chances. The modification in the age criteria, therefore, was made only with a view to bring the students of RMS at par with the students of Sainik Schools so that they are also able to get two chances for the examination conducted by UPSC for NDA.

(3.)AS regards the cut off date to determine the eligibility in the matter of age, the learned Additional Solicitor General submits that the cut off date has all over been 1st July and the same is in line with the cut off date of NDA which are January and July each year.