Contractual appointment outside recruitment rules does not confer Government servant status or age relaxation rights.

A short-term contractual Drugs Inspector does not become a Government servant merely because the engagement is renewed from time to time. The governing test is whether the appointee holds a civil post under the recruitment rules and service framework; if the appointment is dehors the rules and purely contractual, constitutional protections and service benefits reserved for regular Government servants do not apply. On that basis, a contractual appointee cannot claim relaxation in the upper age limit for direct recruitment.

---

---

Issues: Whether a person engaged on short-term contract basis as a Drugs Inspector could be treated as a Government servant and thereby claim relaxation in the upper age limit for direct recruitment.

Analysis: The governing test was whether the engagement had matured into the status of a Government servant or remained a purely contractual employment. A Government servant holds a civil post under statutory service rules and constitutional protections such as Articles 16, 309 and 311 apply to such service. By contrast, a purely contractual appointee whose engagement is for a fixed term, outside the recruitment rules, does not acquire the incidents of Government service merely because the appointment was renewed from time to time. The relevant service rules and constitutional scheme require recruitment through the prescribed process, and a person appointed de hors the rules on contract basis cannot claim the benefits available to regular Government servants. The indicia of master and servant, though relevant, were insufficient to convert the contractual arrangement into Government service where the appointment lacked regular recruitment, statutory incidents of service, and the protections attached to a civil post.

Conclusion: The contractual appointee was not a Government servant and was not entitled to age relaxation.

Ratio Decidendi: A purely contractual appointment made outside the recruitment rules does not confer the status of a Government servant or the attendant service benefits reserved for holders of civil posts.

---