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Social Media Posts:
The age limit for recruitment of police constables was stated as follows on a website published on job opportunities, indicating that the relevant job opportunity is between 18 and 28.
Notes regarding this continued to circulate on social media as follows.
The following fact-checking was conducted to determine the truth or falsehood of this.
Fact Check:
Government Gazette No. 2482, dated 27.03.2026, states that the new recruitments are scheduled to be made to the ranks of Apprentice Police Constable, Female Police Constable and Police Constable Driver in the Sri Lanka Police and the Police Special Task Force.
It is mentioned that nearly 7500 new officers, covering the entire island, including the Northern and Eastern provinces, are expected to be recruited for these positions.
When submitting applications, the applicants should visit the website www.police.lk and complete the application through the online method only and need to make their submissions before 08th of May 2026.
A notice was issued on the official Facebook page of the Sri Lanka Police in this regard, which is located here.
As specified therein, the basic qualifications for the positions for which applications have been invited have been specified in the Government Gazette. The full gazette notification can be seen here.
Upper Age Limit for the Police Constable, Women Police Constable & Special Task Force Police Constable, Special Task Force Women Police Constable Position is Twenty Four
Age – Must be between 18 and 24 years of age as on the closing date for applications.
Police Constable Driver and Special Task Force Police Constable Driver Position
Age – Must be between 18 and 28 years of age as on the closing date for applications.
Therefore, the limit for recruitment to all posts has NOT been increased to 28 years; it only applies to Police Constable Driver/ Special Task Force Police Constable Driver Positions.
A special clarification regarding the misleading posts regarding the age limit has been posted on the official Facebook page of the Sri Lanka Police.
As mentioned earlier, as per the gazette notification, the age limit for recruitment to the post of Apprentice Police Constable/Female Police Constable should not be less than 18 years and not more than 24 years, and the age limit for the post of Apprentice Police Constable Driver should not be less than 18 years and not more than 28 years.
Therefore, the viral posts generalising 28 as the upper age limit for all the vacancies are misleading.
Accordingly, the Sri Lanka Police inform applicants not to believe such false information and to submit applications and appear for the interview only if they meet the basic qualifications stated in the gazette notification. The notification is available here.
Police Media Unit
To further confirm this, we inquired with the Police Media Unit. They confirmed that the basic age limit for applying for the posts of Police Constable/Police Constable Women in the Sri Lanka Police is between 18 and 24 years of age.
They further confirmed that the age limit for the Police Constable Driver position is between 18 and 28 years, as clearly stated in the gazette notification.
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Conclusion:
The social media posts generalising the upper age limit as 28 for all recently published positions in the Sri Lanka police are misleading. As stated in the Gazette, the age limit for the post of Police Constable, for both male and female candidates, is required to be between 18 and 24 years as of the closing date for applications, while the age limit for the post of Police Constable Driver only is required to be between 18 and 28 years as of the closing date for applications.
Title: Misleading posts falsely claim that the age limit for recruitment to all police posts has been increased to 28 years!
Written By: Pavithra Hansani
Result: Misleading
