The Office of the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Pr.CCIT), Pune Region, is hiring meritorious sportspersons under Notification F.No. Pr.CCIT/Pune/SRC/Advt.2026-27, dated 10 August 2026. Unlike a general open-category drive, every post here is reserved exclusively for candidates with recognised sports achievements — regular applicants without a valid sports certificate are not eligible to apply, no matter how strong their academic or typing credentials are.
Three posts are on offer: Stenographer Grade-II, Tax Assistant, and Multi-Tasking Staff (MTS). The department has put the total at 85 vacancies, and applications opened on 15 August 2026, closing 15 September 2026. Everything runs online through the Income Tax Department’s recruitment portal linked from incometaxindia.gov.in — physical or offline applications are explicitly not accepted.
A Discrepancy Worth Knowing Before You Apply
Here’s something most summaries of this notification skip over. The post-wise vacancy table circulating from the official notification lists Stenographer Grade-II at 6 posts, Tax Assistant at 40, and MTS at 30. Add those up and you get 76 — not 85. Yet the “Total number of posts” line in the same notification states 85.
This isn’t a typo introduced by a job portal; it’s a mismatch that appears to originate in the uploaded notification itself, and at least one independent tracking site has flagged it directly. What this means practically: don’t treat the 6/40/30 post-wise split as final when deciding whether to apply for Stenographer versus Tax Assistant. Download the notification PDF yourself and look for any addendum, corrigendum, or category-wise reservation table that might account for the extra 9 posts — reservation-wise breakups (SC/ST/OBC/EWS/UR) sometimes get added as a separate annexure that changes the visible total. Applying based on a portal’s summarised table alone, without checking for a correction notice, is a real risk here.
Who Is Eligible — Sports Quota Conditions
This recruitment follows the eligibility framework laid out in the DoPT Office Memorandum dated 4 March 2024, which governs sports-quota recruitment across central government departments. Applications are invited from meritorious sportspersons across 17 recognised sports and games — the specific list of disciplines is part of the official notification and should be checked there, since portal summaries don’t always reproduce it completely or consistently.
Vacancy distribution by gender is confirmed: 49 posts for male sportspersons and 36 for female sportspersons, adding up to the stated 85. This gender-wise split is separate from the post-wise (Steno/TA/MTS) split discussed above, and candidates should not confuse the two when checking where they fit.
One condition deserves particular attention: sports achievements will be considered only if earned up to the date of the notification, 10 August 2026. Any tournament result, selection, or medal achieved after that date — even if it happens before the application closes on 15 September — will not count toward your eligibility. A candidate who wins a state-level medal in late August, hoping it strengthens their application, will find it doesn’t help at all under this notification’s terms.
Age Limit
Age is calculated as on 1 January 2026, not the application closing date. Reported age-limit examples suggest a maximum of 27 years for the UR category for Stenographer Grade-II and Tax Assistant posts — so a UR candidate born on or after 2 January 1999 would qualify, while one born before that would exceed the limit, subject to standard government age relaxation for reserved categories, ex-servicemen, and other eligible groups as applicable.
Because age is locked to 1 January 2026 rather than the application deadline, candidates whose birthday falls between January and September 2026 need to calculate their age precisely as of the cutoff date, not as of “today,” when checking eligibility — a mistake that trips up a fair number of applicants every recruitment cycle.
How to Apply — and the One-Application Rule
The application process is entirely online. A candidate can apply for more than one post — say, both Tax Assistant and MTS — but this has to be done within a single application by indicating order of preference. Submitting separate, multiple applications is explicitly disallowed; doing so results in rejection of all the applications submitted, not just the extra ones. This is the opposite pattern from many other recruitment drives (including university non-teaching posts) where separate applications per post are the norm — so candidates who’ve applied to multiple such drives recently should not carry that habit over here.
Application fee details were not clearly available in the sources checked for this article. Candidates should verify the exact fee amount and category-wise exemptions directly from the official notification PDF rather than relying on any secondary figure.
Salary and Pay Structure
Exact pay-matrix levels for each post (Stenographer Grade-II, Tax Assistant, MTS) were not consistently detailed across available sources for this article. In general, these three designations correspond to standard Central Government Group C/Group B pay levels under the 7th CPC, but candidates should confirm the specific level and gross salary figure from the official notification rather than assume a figure — this is one area where getting it wrong from a secondary source is easy.
Selection Process — and What “Result” Will Actually Mean Here
Sports-quota recruitment doesn’t follow the same written-exam-plus-interview pattern as a general recruitment drive. Selection typically runs through verification of sports achievement certificates against the DoPT-notified list of recognised tournaments, followed by a trial or physical fitness assessment specific to the discipline claimed, and only then a document/qualification screening for the post applied to. None of the dates for these stages — trial, screening, or final merit list — have been announced as of 8 September 2026.
When results do come out for a sports-quota recruitment like this, they typically arrive in stages rather than a single list: first a list of candidates shortlisted for sports trial/verification, then a merit list based on trial performance combined with sports achievement weightage, and only then a final selection list after document verification. Candidates expecting a single “result PDF” the way they might for a written-exam-based post should recalibrate that expectation — the process here is longer and involves an in-person or certificate-verification stage that a written exam doesn’t.
A Practical Mistake Candidates Make in Sports Quota Applications
A recurring issue in sports-quota recruitment generally — and one candidates should watch for here — is submitting a sports certificate that doesn’t match the exact format or issuing-authority requirement specified in the DoPT memorandum. A state association’s certificate, a school-level certificate, or one from an unrecognised federation often gets rejected at verification even if the achievement itself is genuine, because the certifying body doesn’t match what the department requires. Given that this notification explicitly references the 4 March 2024 DoPT OM, candidates should cross-check their certificate’s issuing authority against that memorandum’s list before applying, not after being shortlisted.
Important Links |
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| Apply Online (Dedicated Portal) | click here |
| Official Notification PDF | click here |
| Official Income Tax Department Website | click here |
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. The post-wise vacancy table shows 76 posts but the total says 85 — which figure should I go by?
This is a genuine discrepancy in the circulating notification, not a reporting error. Check the official PDF for any corrigendum or reservation-wise annexure that might explain the extra 9 posts before relying on the 6/40/30 split.
Q2. I achieved a sports milestone in late August 2026, after the notification came out — can I include it in my application?
No. Only sports achievements up to 10 August 2026, the notification date, are considered eligible under this recruitment.
Q3. Can I apply separately for Tax Assistant and MTS if I’m eligible for both?
No — you must apply for both within a single application, indicating your order of preference. Submitting more than one separate application leads to rejection of all applications submitted.
Q4. My birthday is in June 2026 — do I calculate my age as of the application closing date or the notification date?
Neither. Age for this recruitment is calculated as on 1 January 2026, regardless of when you apply or when the notification was issued.
Q5. Is there a written exam for these posts, like a typing test for Stenographer?
The available notification details point to sports achievement verification and trial/fitness assessment as the core selection stages rather than a standalone written exam, but post-specific skill requirements (such as stenography speed for Steno Grade-II) should be confirmed from the official notification, since this wasn’t fully detailed in the sources reviewed.
Disclaimer: Notification number, dates, total vacancy count (85), gender-wise split (49 male/36 female), the post-wise 76-vs-85 discrepancy, the age-calculation date, and the single-application rule are drawn from the official notification and cross-checked secondary reporting as available on 8 September 2026. Fee amount, exact pay levels, the full 17-sport list, and result-stage dates are not confirmed as of this writing — verify all of these directly from the official source before applying: https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/
