Aspirants say that revised eligibility and age criteria is discriminatory and unwarranted especially as it came too late
Reserve Bank of India's revised recruitment policy has eventually landed up in the Bombay High Court last week with several aspirants — who became ineligible following the change — seeking relief on the grounds that the fresh norms are not only discriminatory but also defies natural law of justice. The court has admitted the petition and has issued notice to the RBI. Since the RBI counsel wasn't present for the first hearing on October 14, another hearing is slated for October 20. The group B officers exam — deemed second most prestigious exam after UPSC — is slated for November end which was delayed by three months this year. Some aspirants claimed they had left jobs to prepare for this exam.
When the notifications for the exam came on August 19 and October 5, aspirants learnt that not only the exam pattern was revised, but also a fresh clause of throughout first class was also added along with the fresh deadline for the age. A large number of youngsters who were preparing for annual entry into the RBI for over a year landed on the other side of the bar for not meeting the fresh age and minimum marks criteria. "The revised criteria demands 60% throughout Class 10, 12 and graduation and weightage given to post graduate/MBA/CA/CS was completely omitted. Till the year 2014, the eligibility criteria was first class Bachelor's degree or 55% Marks in PG or MBA/CA/CS with Bachelor's degree. This has made almost 50% of aspiring candidates out of the race," Alok Ranjan, one of the aspirants and lead petitioner told dna.
dna on October 8 had highlighted the plight of many aspirants seeking to appear for the exam but were deemed unfit due to new age bar notification. Interestingly, the RBI issued two more corrigendum in current recruitment process dated 09.10.15 and 12.10.15 which is unusual. "This was a mental torture to aspiring candidates as each corrigendum made thousands of candidates fit into eligibility and after few days they were ineligible with the issue of new corrigendum. It seems that RBI is favoring a particular class of candidate by putting such harsh eligibility criteria. Also, the weightage given to CA/CS/MBA is not available now," alleged Anil Yadav, another candidate.
Petitioners said: "In a diverse country like India, there is no parity in education system and marks/grade awarding practices of different Boards/Universities are different from others. As per statistics of Ministry of HRD, GoI, getting 60% marks in SSC & HSC level in CBSE and ICSE Boards is easier as compared to State Boards. For example, 88% candidates passed with 60% and more marks in SSC examination in ICSE Board in the year 2010, at the same time, only 8.5% candidate passed SSC exam with 60% and more marks in Assam Board." The petitioners also contend that grading and marking system of Universities in India also differs.
While speaking to dna, Sanjiv Sawant, counsel for the aspirants, said: "The criteria for the exam was same for the past 30 years and RBI changed the rule of the game at the last minute. The bank is even depriving candidates who have higher qualification. They even issued a corrigendum to the first advertisement which is not permisssible." Being asked about the issue through an email, RBI's lpana Killawala, principal chief general manager, department of communication, replied: "Thanks. We will check and revert tomorrow."
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