The fate of hundreds of Jammu and Kashmir civil services aspirants remains uncertain as lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha and chief minister Omar Abdullah appeared to engage in a blame game over the age-relaxation issue on Saturday, a day ahead of the preliminary exams.
Large-scale flight cancellations made matters worse for stranded aspirants, including those eligible to compete under the existing rules, with growing calls to defer the exams remaining unanswered till Saturday evening.
A student association said they had received hundreds of distress calls from “anxious aspirants stuck at airports in Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and other cities”.
“Many students who had travelled outside Jammu and Kashmir for coaching, or are studying in universities, are now unsure whether they should fly back, wait, or cancel their travel altogether,” Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA) said.
Political sparring on the issue intensified amid a hunger strike launched by some aspirants in Jammu and Srinagar. Both Sinha and Omar are apparently in favour of granting the relaxation, but the issue is caught in administrative ambiguity, bringing the focus back on how dual control was affecting lives in the Union Territory.
A cabinet headed by Omar recently cleared the proposal for age relaxation for the Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) and sent it to the LG’s office for approval. A war of words broke out on Saturday as both sides appeared to blame each other for the crisis.
Omar fired the salvo from his official X handle, expressing “deep concern over the travel chaos caused by the ongoing airline issues” and “compounded by the uncertainty resulting from Lok Bhavan’s delay in approving age relaxation”.
The post said age relaxation had been granted multiple times in the past, with the chief minister urging the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) to take note of the unprecedented stress on aspirants and consider postponing the exam “in the interest of fairness and equal opportunity for all”.
The LG’s X handle offered sympathies with the aspirants and said the “social media posts with regard to JKPSC exam are misleading”, an apparent dig at the chief minister.
“Lok Bhavan had received the file (from CM’s office, clearing age relaxation) on 2nd Dec, 2025, which was categorically related to Age Relaxation only. File was returned the same day, 2nd Dec, 2025, with a query whether it is logistically possible to conduct exam on 7th Dec, by incorporating modifications in eligibility criteria at such a belated stage,” the LG’s office said.
“Despite lapse of 4 days Lok Bhavan did not receive any response. I fully sympathise with young aspirants,” it added. The LG said the JKPSC published the advertisement notice for the examination on August 22. The exam was scheduled to be conducted on December 7 through a notice on November 6.
Omar’s chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said there was no need to raise questions on the age relaxation that had been granted by the LG several times in the past.
“If this is not a deliberate attempt to delay the process, then what is it?” Sadiq asked.
Many aspirants blamed both sides for playing the “blame game”. People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone said the “JKAS age relaxation issue” was “turning out yet another classical case of passing the buck at the cost of young aspirants”.
Lone had earlier said the upper age limit for open merit candidates across the country was 38 years, but it was 32 in Jammu and Kashmir.
The JKSA said they had been demanding a permanent solution to the issue by aligning the upper age limit with that of central services. “The demand is genuine and justified, especially as Jammu and Kashmir continues to be the only Union Territory with such a narrow upper age limit (32 years) for open-merit candidates,” it said.
