diff --git a/docs/en_US/release_notes_9_16.rst b/docs/en_US/release_notes_9_16.rst
index a7ec92e1bee..11689f01cb5 100644
--- a/docs/en_US/release_notes_9_16.rst
+++ b/docs/en_US/release_notes_9_16.rst
@@ -25,3 +25,5 @@ Housekeeping
 
 Bug fixes
 *********
+
+  | `Issue #9829 <https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/issues/9829>`_ -  Fixed installation on Python 3.9 (e.g. RHEL/Rocky/AlmaLinux 8 and 9) failing with "No module named 'pkg_resources'" by pinning setuptools below the version that dropped pkg_resources for Python 3.9.
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 3c288fb0d1b..c2b44b10a56 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@ pytz==2026.*
 # pinned for https://github.com/andfoy/pywinpty/issues/545
 pywinpty==2.0.*; sys_platform=="win32"
 qrcode[pil]==8.*
-setuptools==82.*
+setuptools<82; python_version <= '3.9'
+setuptools==82.*; python_version > '3.9'
 SQLAlchemy==2.*
 sqlparse==0.*
 sshtunnel==0.*