Telangana Govt. Raises Upper Age Limit to 44 for Direct Recruitment
A number of representations have been received from unemployed youths, for considering relaxation of the upper age limit for direct recruitment to enable more unemployed youth to become eligible to compete in the recruitment process
Hyderabad: In a major relief to lakhs of unemployed youth and government job aspirants, the state government on Tuesday issued orders raising the upper age limit for direct recruitment examinations conducted by government recruitment agencies by 10 years. This will be valid for one year.
With the latest decision, the upper age limit for general category candidates has been enhanced from 34 years to 44 years, enabling a large number of unemployed youth to become eligible to appear for upcoming recruitment examinations.
The government also announced a corresponding increase in the upper age limit for reserved category candidates, including from the BC, SC and ST communities. At present, these categories enjoy a relaxation of five years over the general category age limit. With the fresh enhancement, their upper age limit will now increase from 44 to 49 years.
Originally, the upper age limit for general category candidates was 34 years. The previous BRS government had first increased the upper age limit by 10 years from 34 years to 44 years in March 2022 for a period of two years, and the relaxation remained in force till March 2024. After the Congress government assumed office in December 2023, it issued orders in February 2024 extending the upper age limit by another two years from 44 years to 46 years for a further two-year period till March 2026.
As no extension orders were issued after March 2026, the upper age limit automatically reverted to 34 years, triggering concern among job aspirants who feared losing eligibility because of the absence of fresh recruitment notifications over the past two years. Against this backdrop, the fresh orders issued on Tuesday restoring the upper age limit to 44 years came as a major relief.
The government had issued fresh Group-1 and DSC notifications in February 2024 before the model code of conduct came into force for the Lok Sabha elections in April 2024. Following the conclusion of the elections in June 2024, the government released an annual job calendar on August 2, 2024, outlining plans for issuing recruitment notifications during 2024-25.
Implementation of the job calendar was stalled after the Supreme Court on August 1, 2024 delivered its verdict in favour of sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes for implementation of reservations in education and employment. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy subsequently announced that the Telangana government would implement SC sub-categorisation in accordance with the Supreme Court judgemnt and constituted a Cabinet sub-committee to recommend measures for implementation. He also directed officials to halt all fresh recruitment notifications until legislation on SC sub-categorisation was passed in the Legislative Assembly.
The state government later passed the SC sub-categorisation Act in the Assembly on March 18, 2025. Despite this, no fresh recruitment notifications were issued for more than a year after the legislation was enacted.
Meanwhile, the Revanth Reddy government completed the pending Group-1, Group-2, Group-3, Group-4 and DSC recruitment processes, and appointment letters were issued to all selected candidates by January 2026. With these recruitments completed, the government is now preparing to release fresh recruitment notifications.
As part of the preparations, the government directed the Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC) to undertake updation of One Time Registration (OTR) details of all job aspirants before issuing fresh notifications. Candidates who had already registered earlier with TGPSC were given an opportunity to update their details, while fresh applicants were allowed to upload their information. The government made it clear that only registered candidates would be permitted to appear for recruitment examinations. The OTR updation process was carried out during March and April this year and was completed in April.
With the OTR updation exercise now over, the state government is expected to move ahead with fresh recruitment notifications soon. Sources said the state Cabinet meeting scheduled on May 21 is likely to approve new job notifications. The government is also expected to announce a fresh annual job calendar for 2026-27 coinciding with Telangana State Formation Day celebrations from June 2 to June 12.
The latest enhancement in the upper age limit is expected to benefit lakhs of candidates who lost opportunities due to delays in issuing fresh recruitment notifications since March 2024.
