DHANANJAY KUMAR MISHRA Vs. BIHAR STAFF SELECTION COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these five writ applications the petitioners have assailed the result of Graduate Level Combined (Main Examination) 2010 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Main Examination') in respect of Advertisement No. 110/2010 whereby and whereunder 25792 candidates have been declared successful by the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (hereinafter referred to as "the Commission") for being considered for their appointment on 3285 Class-Ill graduate level posts under the State Government. By way of consequential reliefs, they have also prayed for restraining the official respondents either from proceeding for counseling of aforesaid 25792 successful candidates or issuing appointment letters to them against 3285 Class-III posts. A further direction has also been sought by them for commanding the Commission to conduct the Main Examination afresh on the basis of earlier result of the preliminary test conducted by the Commission wherein only 16425 candidates were declared successful for appearing in the Main Examination. In addition to the aforementioned common prayer in all the writ applications, a separate prayer has also been made only in C.W.J.C. No. 3640/2013, which incidentally is the main case wherein all the pleadings have been filed by all the parties, that this Court should direct for holding an enquiry by an independent agency, namely, Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I.) in the entire selection process undertaken by the Commission in respect of the aforementioned Advertisement No. 110/2010 pertaining to Graduate Level Combined Competitive Examination. The facts which would be sufficient to be noticed for disposal of all these writ applications lie in a very narrow compass. The Commission on 18.6.2010 had issued an advertisement notifying 1569 vacancies of Graduate Level Post in various departments of the State Government and the last date for filing application was 26.7.2010. The Commission on receipt of 3,85,799 applications and after their screening had conducted a preliminary written test on 18.12.2011 in which 253795 candidates had appeared at various centres all over Bihar. The result of the aforesaid preliminary test was published by the Commission on 12.4.2012 wherein 16425 candidates were declared successful for appearing in the Main Examination.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioners that in the meantime, the police had registered Economic Offence P.S. Case No. 23/2012 dated 20.10.2012 for offences under Sections 420, 468, 472, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code disclosing that the miscreants had tampered the answer sheets (OMR sheets) after entering in the office and strong room of the Commission relating to the different examinations including that of Junior Engineers, Auditors, Secretariat Assistants (i.e. present selection). In this regard the petitioners in C.W.J.C. No. 3640/2013 have made detailed averments and have referred to press release dated 21.10.2012 issued by the Chairman of the Commission assuring to cancel the result of any examination conducted by the Commission if the allegation of tampering the answer sheets in the aforesaid criminal case was found to be true. It has however been alleged that the officials of the Commission including its Chairman did not extend the necessary co-operation in investigation of the aforementioned police case, Economic Offence P.S. Case No. 23/2012 and only due to that the police could not properly investigate the interpolation in the OMR sheets of the present examinations.

(3.) From the pleadings it is also clear that a batch of writ applications, namely, C.W.J.C. No. 10268/2012, C.W.J.C. No. 10683/2012, C.W.J.C. No. 12209/2012, C.W.J.C. No. 12506/2012, C.W.J.C. No. 14078/2012 and C.W.J.C. No. 19678/2012 were filed for cancellation of the result of the aforesaid preliminary test dated 12.4.2012 wherein also a prayer was made for registering a First information Report in respect of the criminal misconduct committed by the authorities of the Commission in the tampering of answer sheets of the preliminary examination and for its being investigated by the C.B.I. and those writ petitions were disposed of by a common order dated 30.10.2012 without interfering with the result of the preliminary test examination and/or giving any direction for lodging of the F.I.R. and the investigation by the C.B.I. as with regard to the aforesaid alleged criminal misconduct committed by the authorities of the Commission.