ARUN KUMAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The ten petitioners in the present writ application have sought a direction upon the Collector, Bhojpur to appoint them in place of the private respondents no.9 to 18 on a IVth Grade post from the panel of District Ummidwar Peons prepared on 10/10/2013. This prayer has been made on the basis that the Three Man Committee did not properly evaluate and take into consideration the mandays of these petitioners while making such appointments and people with lesser number of mandays have been appointed, which violates Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) This is not the first round of litigation as the petitioners had approached this Court earlier and a direction was given upon the respondents that the grievance of the petitioners with regard to their inclusion in the panel and the evidence of their number of days of working should be looked into and verified before a final decision is taken. The case of the petitioners is that the authorities in violation of the said direction ignored the evidence, went ahead with the appointments 3 by leaving out these petitioners from the zone of consideration.

(3.) Though a counter affidavit on behalf of the District Magistrate, Bhojpur was filed earlier but looking at the arguments made at the bar, the Court directed the District Magistrate himself to file a counter affidavit duly sworn by him so that some kind of credence and weightage could be given to the authenticity of the statements made with full responsibility at the level of the District Magistrate. He being the highest authority of the district under whom appointments from the list of Ummidwar Peons was required to be made.