Eligibility for GD Constable is decided by four separate gates, and a great many candidates clear three of them and are stopped at the fourth. You need to be within the age band on the crucial date the notice fixes, you need a Matriculation pass, you need to meet the physical standards for height and chest that apply to your category and region, and you need to finish the race inside the time limit. None of these is negotiable and none of them is decided by how well you did in the written paper. Read this before you pay the fee, not after, because the Commission does not check your claims until much later.
You only ever reach the physical stages by clearing this 160-mark Computer Based Examination and being shortlisted in merit order within your own state, category and gender bucket. So being eligible on paper and being eligible in the queue are two different things - meeting every physical standard is worth nothing without the score, and the score is worth nothing without the standards. The selection sequence runs CBE, then PST and PET, then Detailed Medical Examination and Document Verification, and it is at that last stage that your certificates are actually scrutinised.
The age band is 18 to 23 years, but it is reckoned as on a crucial date that the notice fixes for that cycle and states as an explicit date-of-birth window - so always read that window rather than doing the arithmetic from today. Upper-age relaxations are 5 years for SC and ST, 3 years for OBC, and for Ex-Servicemen 3 years after deducting military service rendered from actual age on the date of reckoning. Children and dependants of victims killed in the 1984 riots get 5 years in the Unreserved and EWS categories, 8 years in OBC and 10 years in SC and ST. One detail that sinks candidates every cycle: the date of birth in your application must match the Matriculation certificate exactly, and no later correction is entertained.
The base standard is 170 cm for male candidates and 157 cm for female candidates. Male chest must be 80 cm unexpanded with a minimum expansion of 5 cm; chest is not measured for female candidates, though it is ascertained to be well developed. Relaxed male heights apply as follows: 162.5 cm for Scheduled Tribe candidates, 157 cm for ST candidates of the North Eastern states, 160 cm for ST candidates of Left-Wing Extremism affected districts, 165 cm for Garhwalis, Kumaonis, Dogras, Marathas and candidates of Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, 162.5 cm for candidates of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, and 157 cm for those from the Gorkha Territorial Administration. Relaxed female minimums for the same groups run between 147.5 cm and 155 cm. Relaxed male chest is 76 cm for ST, 78 cm for the Garhwali and Kumaoni group, and 77 cm for the North Eastern states and GTA, each with 5 cm expansion.
Male candidates must complete 5 kilometres in 24 minutes and female candidates 1.6 kilometres in 8.5 minutes. Candidates of the Ladakh region run 1.6 kilometres in 7 minutes for men and 800 metres in 5 minutes for women. If you are declared not qualified on physical standards - that is, height or chest - you may appeal the same day to the Appellate Authority nominated at that centre, and its decision is final. There is no appeal at all against the race. Ex-Servicemen are exempted from the PET, though those shortlisted still attend the PST so that height, chest and weight are recorded, and they must still qualify the medical examination.
Vacancies in the CAPFs and Assam Rifles are earmarked state and UT wise, with only Secretariat Security Force posts filled on an all-India basis, and further vacancies reserved for candidates of Border Guarding Districts and of militancy or Naxal affected districts. You must produce a Domicile or Permanent Residence Certificate for the state you named in your application at the time of medical examination and document verification. If you produce a certificate from a different state, you are not allowed to change your choice at that point and your candidature is cancelled outright. Fill that field slowly, because it silently determines the cut-off you will be measured against.
A pass in the Matriculation or 10th Class Examination from a recognised Board or University is the prescribed educational qualification, and it must be acquired on or before the cut-off date stated in the notice. No higher qualification is required, and holding one gives you no advantage in merit. Candidates who have not acquired the qualification as on that stipulated date are not eligible and the notice says plainly that they need not apply - so if your 10th result is still awaited on the cut-off date, you cannot use this cycle. You will need to produce the Matriculation certificate at document verification, and it doubles as your proof of age.
The band is 18 to 23 years as on the crucial date the notice fixes for that recruitment, which the notice also expresses as a specific range of dates of birth - read those dates rather than assuming, because the crucial date shifts from cycle to cycle. Relaxation beyond the upper limit is 5 years for SC and ST candidates and 3 years for OBC candidates. Ex-Servicemen get 3 years after the period of military service rendered is deducted from their actual age on the date of reckoning, and call-up service counts as service rendered. Children and dependants of victims killed in the 1984 riots receive 5, 8 or 10 years depending on whether they fall in the Unreserved or EWS, OBC, or SC and ST categories.
Relaxation in height is granted by category and region, not by how narrowly you miss the standard, so a general-category male candidate at 168 cm has no route to relaxation and will be rejected at the Physical Standard Test no matter how high his written score. Check whether you fall into one of the relaxed groups: Scheduled Tribes, ST candidates of the North Eastern states or of Left-Wing Extremism affected districts, the Garhwali, Kumaoni, Dogra and Maratha categories and candidates of Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, candidates of the seven named North Eastern states, or those from the Gorkha Territorial Administration. If none applies, it is kinder to know now than after months of preparation.
Yes, in three ways. The base height minimum is 157 cm rather than 170 cm, and relaxed minimums for the same categories that relax male height run down to as low as 147.5 cm for some Scheduled Tribe groups. Chest measurement is not taken for female candidates at all, although the board ascertains that the chest is well developed. The race is 1.6 kilometres in 8.5 minutes rather than 5 kilometres in 24 minutes, with 800 metres in 5 minutes for candidates of the Ladakh region. Female candidates are also required to submit a self-declaration about pregnancy status when reporting for the PET and PST.
Your candidature is provisional right through the process. The Commission states that it does not undertake detailed scrutiny of the application at the time of the Computer Based Examination or the PET and PST, so a wrong claim can survive several stages before anyone looks at it. Eligibility for height and chest relaxation is scrutinised by the CAPF boards after you qualify the race and before the PST, and non-ST candidates must produce the certificate in the notice's prescribed proforma at that point. Full document scrutiny happens at the Detailed Medical Examination and Document Verification stage. If a claim is not substantiated then, candidature is cancelled and the Commission's decision is final.
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