IBPS PO Eligibility 2023 - Qualification, Percentage, Age Limit for Bank Exams

The IBPS PO Eligibility conditions and the documents needed for the PO interview are mentioned in this article. The IBPS publishes the Probation Officer (PO) Eligibility criteria every year in the official notification.

The IBPS PO exam has a set of eligibility conditions that need to be fulfilled for an aspirant to get a shot at securing the prestigious job of a banker.

Candidates should make sure that they meet all eligibility criteria before applying for the exam.

For details on other Bank exams, refer to the linked article.

The PO eligibility conditions take into account three factors:

• IBPS Age Limit
• Nationality
• Educational Qualification

For more eligibility details on Upcoming bank exams, refer to the linked article.

IBPS PO Age Limit

The IBPS PO age limit for general category is as follows:

There are certain exemptions related to the IBPS PO Age Limit allowed for some categories :

IBPS PO – Salient Points on Age Limit for Bank Exams

• SC/ST and OBC candidates can apply for a maximum of two cumulative exemptions.
• If an ST candidate also has a physical disability, then a maximum of 15 years will be relaxed for the upper age limit. No other exemptions will be allowed.
• Candidates need to produce certificates affirming their exemption category during the time of the interview to be eligible for the bank PO post.

The IBPS Age limit relaxation is only given to the candidates as specified in the official notification. The age limit for bank exams is decided by the conducting body itself and is subject to change as per their requirement.

IBPS PO Eligibility – Nationality Conditions

The IBPS PO Eligibility as per the Nationality/Citizenship of a candidate is discussed below.

The candidates applying for the exam should fulfil the following criteria:

• Citizenship of India
• Subjects of Nepal or Bhutan
• Tibetan Refugee who arrived before January 1, 1962
• A person of Indian origin migrated from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Burma(Myanmar), Vietnam or East African countries of the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Zaire or Ethiopia to permanently settle in India

All candidates who are not Indian citizens have to produce a certificate of eligibility from the Government of India during the Bank PO interview.

IBPS PO Educational Qualification

The institute specifies that candidates who wish to appear for the IBPS PO exam should at least have a Bachelor’s degree from a recognized university.

Candidates appearing for IBPS PO exam must be abreast of the latest exam pattern and syllabus of the exam. 

Other qualifications acceptable as equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree such as AMIE, departmental courses from the government etc. are also allowed.

For the courses mentioned above, the candidate should furnish proof that the qualification is considered equivalent to a degree (Graduation) by the Government of India.

Candidates have to specify the percentage obtained in Graduation while filling in the online application. Also, the candidates being awarded CGPA have to convert the same into a percentage. Percentage calculation must be done to the nearest two decimals.

The fraction of percentage arrived will be ignored, i.e. 54.99% will be treated as less than 55%, and 59.99% will be treated as less than 60%.

The Institute does not specify any IBPS PO eligibility percentage. The individual banks use the IBPS calculation of aggregate percentage for their purposes.

For extensive and comprehensive preparation of IBPS PO exam candidates must take free online quizzes, that will also help them analyze their preparation level. 

IBPS PO Eligibility – EWS Category

Applicants not covered under the SC, ST, OBC categories and have a gross annual income less than 8 lakh rupees are identified as EWS candidates i.e. candidates belonging to Economically Weaker Section. Such candidates are entitled to the benefit of 10% reservation for the vacancies released by IBPS.

Important Points related to IBPS PO Eligibility for EWS Category 

The income from all sources such as salary,  business, agriculture, profession, etc. will be included in revenue. This income will be the income from the financial year preceding the year of application. 

However, a person possessing any of the following assets will not be included in the EWS category, irrespective of his annual family income.

1. 5 acres of Agricultural Land and above
2. Residential flat of 1000 sq. Ft. and above
3. Residential plot of 100 sq. yards and above in notified municipalities
4. Residential plot of 200 sq. yards and above in areas other than the notified municipalities

While applying for the property holding test to determine EWS status, the property owned in different locations by a particular “Family” is clubbed.

Candidates seeking to avail the benefit of EWS reservation for IBPS PO Selection Process will have to produce an Income and Asset Certificate at the time of document verification and interview round issued by a Competent Authority in the prescribed format. 

The term “Family” will include the person seeking the benefit of reservation, his parents, siblings below 18 years of age, spouse and children below 18 years of age.

IBPS PO Eligibility – PwD Category

As per the Government of India norms, persons with benchmark disabilities are eligible for reservation under section 34 of “The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016”.

The categories of disabilities eligible to avail reservation under the Act is as follows:

• Deaf and hard of hearing
• Blindness and low vision
• intellectual disability, autism, mental illness and specific learning disability
• locomotor disability including leprosy cured, cerebral palsy, dwarfism, muscular dystrophy and acid attack victims

People with benchmark disabilities will be allocated the reserved vacancies as prescribed in the “The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016” and as per vacancies reported to IBPS by Participating banks.

Directives for PwD using services of Scribe

Candidates whose writing speed is affected permanently or with minimum benchmark disability for any reason are allowed to use their own scribe during IBPS PO Exam 2023, but have to abide by certain rules mentioned below.

• Candidates who wish to use the scribe services or are eligible for the same in the examination will have to apply for the services of scribe while filling the IBPS PO Application Form.
• Scribe will have to be arranged by the candidates themselves and at their own cost.
• Both candidate and Scribe will have to submit an undertaking that all the stipulated eligibility conditions mentioned for the Scribe are fulfilled. Also, if, at any stage of the exam, it is found that the Scribe did not fulfil any of the eligibility criteria prescribed or suppresses material facts then the applicant’s candidature will be cancelled, irrespective of the result of the CRP.
• The scribe used by the candidate is eligible for compensatory time of 20 mins or otherwise recommended for the full hour of the examination.

Since compensatory time given to candidates shall be a system based process, therefore, only candidates who register for the same will be allowed such concessions.

Directives for candidates with Cerebral Palsy and Locomotor Disability 

Candidates with a minimum of 40% Cerebral Palsy and Locomotor Disability where dominant extremity i.e. writing is affected to the scope where it may slow down the performance will be permitted a compensatory time of 20 min/hr or otherwise advised.

Directives for candidates having Intellectual Disability

Candidates will be provided a compensatory time of 20 min/hr of the exam only if they are more than 40% Intellectually Disabled, mentally ill, Autistic or have Specific Learning Disability, irrespective of availing the Scribe services. 

Directives for Visually Impaired candidates

Visually Impaired candidates suffering from 40% or more disability may opt to view the contents of question paper in magnified font and will be eligible for compensatory time of 20 min/hr otherwise advised. Only the visually impaired candidates who are not using the services of Scribe will be permitted to avail the facility of viewing the contents of the test in the magnifying font.

IBPS PO eligibility – Points to remember

• Persons with disabilities are provided reservation in the IBPS PO exam according to The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
• For visually impaired candidates, IBPS PO Eligibility has norms that allow the use of scribe according to the guidelines.
• The number of reserved vacancies is declared after the respective banks communicate the number of vacant positions to the institute.
• Candidates who fulfil all the above IBPS PO Eligibility criteria should start preparing for the examination well in advance.
• As the IBPS application process is entirely online, it is useful to keep scanned copies of all relevant supporting documents handy.
• This would allow the candidate to finish the application process faster and secure the examination centre of their own choice.