Nationality

• A candidate must be either :—
1. a citizen of India, or
2. a subject of Nepal, or
3. a subject of Bhutan, or
4. a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before 1st January, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India, or
   
5. a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.
• Candidates belonging to categories (b), (c), (d) and (e) shall produce a certificate of eligibility issued by the Government of India.
  Candidates belonging to categories (b), (c) and (d) will not be eligible for appointment to the Indian Foreign Service.
• A candidate in whose case a certificate of eligibility is necessary, may be admitted to the examination but the offer of appointment may be given only after the necessary eligibility certificate has been issued to him/her by the Government of India.

Age Limit

A candidate must have completed 21 years of age and must not have crossed 30 years, as on 1st January of the year of examination.

The upper age limit of 30 years will be relaxable upto 35 years in the case of

1. Government Servants of certain categories mentioned in the information brochure, if they are employed in a Department / Office under the control of certain specific authorities mentioned in the information brochure, and apply for admission to the examination for all or any of certain Service(s) / Post(s) mentioned in the information brochure, for which they are otherwise eligible.
2. A candidate who holds substantively a permanent post in the particular Department / Office concerned. This relaxation will not be admissible to a probationer appointed against a permanent post in the Department / Office during the period of his probation. However this relaxation will be admissible to a probationer so appointed provided he / she already retains a lien on a permanent post in a Department / Office under the control of some of the authorities mentioned in the information brochure.
3. A candidate who has been continuously in a temporary service on a regular basis in certain Department / Office for at least 3 years on 1st January of the year of examination.

NOTE:
The period of apprenticeship if followed by appointment against a working posts on the Railways may be treated as Railway Service for the purpose of age concession.

The upper age limit prescribed above will be further relaxable under the following conditions.

1. upto a maximum of five years if a candidate belongs to a Scheduled Caste (SC) or a Scheduled Tribe (ST).
2. upto a maximum of three years in the case of candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates. The closing date fixed for the receipt of the application will be treated as the date for determining the OBC status (including that of creamy layer) of the candidates.
3. upto a maximum of five years if a candidate had ordinarily been domiciled in the State of Jammu & Kashmir during the period from the 1st January, 1980 to the 31st day of December, 1989.
4. upto a maximum of three years in the case of Defence Services personnel disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area and released as a consequence thereof.
5. upto a maximum of five years in the case of ex-servicemen including Commissioned Officers and ECOs / SSCOs who have rendered at least five years Military Service as on 1st January of the year of examination and have been released
   • on completion of assignment (including those whose assignment is due to be completed within one year from 1st January of the year of examination) otherwise than by way of dismissal or discharge on account of misconduct or inefficiency, or
   • on account of physical disability attributable to Military Service, or
   • on invalidment.
6. upto a maximum of five years in the case of ECOs / SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of five years Military Service as on 1st January of the year of examination and whose assignment has been extended beyond five years and in whose case the Ministry of Defence issues a certificate that they can apply for civil employment and that they will be released on three months notice on selection from the date of receipt of offer of appointment.
7. upto a maximum of 10 years in the case of blind, deaf-mute and orthopaedically handicapped persons.

NOTE:

• Candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes who are also covered under any of the clauses (a) to (g) mentioned above, viz. those coming under the category of Ex-servicemen, persons domiciled in the State of J & K, blind, deaf-mute and orthopaedically handicapped etc. will be eligible for grant of cumulative age-relaxation under both the categories.
• The term ex-servicemen will apply to the persons who are defined as ex-servicemen in the Ex-servicemen (Re-employment in Civil Services and Posts) Rules, 1979, as amended from time to time.
• The age concession under clause (e) and (f) will not be admissible to Ex-Servicemen and Commissioned Officers including ECOs / SSCOs who are released on own request.
• Notwithstanding the provision of age-relaxation under clause (g) above, a physically disabled candidate will be considered to be eligible for appointment only if he/she (after such physical examination as the Government or appointing authority, as the case may be, may prescribe) is found to satisfy the requirements of physical and medical standards for the concerned Services/posts to be allocated to the physically disabled candidates by the Government.
• A candidate will be eligible to get the benefit of community reservation only in case the particular caste to which the candidates belong is included in the list of reserved communities issued by the Central Government. If a candidate indicates in his / her application form for Engineering Services Examination that he/she belongs to General category but subsequently writes to the Commission to change his / her category to a reserved one, such request shall not be entertained by the Commission.
  
• While the above principle will be followed in general, there may be a few cases where there was a little gap (say 2-3 months) between the issuance of a Government Notifications enlisting a particular community in the list of any of the reserved communities and the date of submission of the application by the candidate. In such cases the request of change of community from General to Reserved may be considered by the Commission on merit.
  
• The candidature of a person who is admitted to the examination under the age concession mentioned in (b) above shall be cancelled if, after submitting his application he/she resigns from service or his services are terminated by his/her department/office either before or after taking the examination. He/she will, however, continue to be eligible if he/she is retrenched from the service or post after submitting his application. A candidate who after submitting his application to the department is transferred to other department/office will be eligible to compete under departmental age concession.

SAVE AS PROVIDED ABOVE THE AGE LIMITS PRESCRIBED CAN IN NO CASE BE RELAXED.

Minimum Educational Qualifications

For admission to the examination, a candidate must have -

1. obtained a degree in Engineering from a University incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other Educational Institutions
   established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as Universities under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956; or
   
2. passed Sections A and B of the Institution Examinations of the Institution of Engineers (India); or
   
3. obtained a degree/diploma in Engineering from such foreign University / College / Institution and under such conditions as may be recognised by the Government for the purpose from time to time, or
   
4. passed Graduate Membership Examination of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (India); or
   
5. passed Associate Membership Examination Parts II and III / Sections A and B of the Aeronautical Society of India; or
   
6. passed Graduate Membership Examination of the Institution of Electronics and Radio Engineers, London held after November, 1959.
   

Provided that a candidate for the post of Indian Naval Armament Service (Electronics Engineering Posts) and Engineer, Gr. 'A' in Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing / Monitoring Organisation may possess any of the above qualifications or the qualification mentioned below namely, M.Sc. degree or its equivalent with Wireless Communication, Electronics, Radio Physics or Radio Engineering as a special subject.

• A candidate who has appeared at an examination the passing of which would render him educationally qualified for this examination, but has not been informed of the result, may apply for admission to the examination.
• A candidate who intends to appear at such a qualifying examination may also apply. Such candidates will be admitted to the examination, if otherwise eligible, but their admission would be deemed to be provisional and subject to cancellation, if they do not produce proof of having passed the requisite qualifying examination along with the Detailed Application Form which will be required to be submitted by the candidates who qualify on the result of written part of the examination.
• In exceptional cases, the Commission may treat a candidate, who has not any of the qualifications prescribed in this rule, as educationally qualified provided that he/she has passed examinations conducted by other institutions the standard of which in the opinion of the Commission justifies his / her admission to the examination.
  
• A candidate who is otherwise qualified but who has taken a degree from a foreign University which is not recognised by Government, may also apply to the Commission and may be admitted to the examination at the discretion of the Commission.

Physical Standards

Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Engineering Services Examination as per guidelines given in the Rules for the Engineering Services Examination published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.

Proof of Date of Birth

The date of birth accepted by the Commission is that entered in the Matriculation or Secondary School Leaving Certificate or in a certificate recognised by an Indian University as equivalent to Matriculation or in an extract from a Register of Matriculates maintained by a University, which extract must be certified by the proper authority of the University or in the Higher Secondary or an equivalent examination certificate. These certificates are required to be submitted along with the Detailed Application Forms which will be required to be submitted by the candidates who qualify on the result of the written part of the examination.

• The expression Matriculation / Secondary Examination Certificate in this part of the instruction includes the alternative certificates mentioned above.
• No other document relating to age like horoscopes, affidavits, birth extracts from Municipal Corporation, service records and the like will be accepted.
• Candidates should note that only the Date of Birth as recorded in the Matriculation / Secondary Examination Certificate or an equivalent certificate as on the date of submission of applications will be accepted by the Commission and no subsequent request for its change will be considered or granted.
• Candidates should also note that once a Date of Birth has been claimed by them and entered in the records of the Commission for the purpose of admission to an examination, no change will be allowed subsequently (or at any other examination of the Commission) on any grounds whatsoever.
• The candidate should exercise due care while entering their date of birth in the Application Form. If on verification at any subsequent stage, any variation is found in their date of birth from the one entered in their matriculation or equivalent Examination certificate, disciplinary action will be taken against them by the Commission under the Rules.