Reservation for sportspersons in Government Services

As per extant instructions, Ministries and Departments can recruit meritorious sportspersons to Group ‘C’ posts under the Government of India up to 5% of the vacancies in any year subject to the condition that these including all other reservations do not exceed 50% of the total number of vacancies proposed to be filled up by direct recruitment.

Consolidated instructions on incentives for sports persons including recruitment under sports quota have been issued vide Department of Personnel and Training’s OM No 14034/01/2013-Estt.(D) dated 3rd October 2013. At present no proposal to increase the quota is under consideration of the Government.

Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) lays down the policy for recruitment of meritorious sportsperson which is implemented by the administrative Ministries/Departments. The details regarding number of sportsperson recruited by various Ministries/Departments are not Centrally maintained.

As per extant instructions 43 sports disciplines have been identified for appointment of meritorious sportspersons. These instructions inter alia provide relaxation in upper age limit upto a maximum of 5 years (10 years in case of those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) for the recruitment of meritorious sportspersons to Group ‘C’ posts. Government servants with medal winning performance in specified sports events are also eligible for out of turn promotion.

This was stated by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri Parimal Nathwani in the Rajya Sabha today.

PIB 20-July, 2017