Ordinance amended on age limit for jobs in public and autonomous bodies

The government has partially amended the 2024 ordinance that set the entry age limit at 32 for jobs in government, autonomous and self-governing bodies. Under the revised provision, organisations whose own recruitment rules or regulations already allow a maximum age above 32 for direct recruitment to certain posts will be permitted to retain that higher limit.

The Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs issued the new ordinance on Monday. Titled the Maximum age limit for direct recruitment in government, autonomous, statutory authorities, public non-financial corporations and self-governing bodies amendment ordinance, 2025, the amendment takes effect immediately.

The new ordinance removes the term semi-autonomous and related references from the title, preamble and relevant sections of the November 2024 ordinance, and adds a new subsection.

The added provision states that, notwithstanding other clauses, where an organisation’s own recruitment rules prescribe a maximum age above 32 for direct recruitment to any post, the existing age limit will remain unchanged.

It may be recalled that an ordinance issued on November 18 last year fixed the maximum entry age at 32 for all Bangladesh Civil Service cadres and non-cadre government jobs. It also capped age limits at 32 for posts in autonomous, semi-autonomous, statutory authorities, public non-financial corporations and self-governing bodies where the limit had been 30 or up to 32, while leaving existing limits unchanged for the defence division and law enforcement agencies.