PRANAV KUMAR ROY Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since the common issues are involved in these writ petitions and as such, these are taken up together and disposed of by this common order.

(2.) In the both the writ petitions, the petitioners have approached this Court with the following prayers:

(3.) The short facts lying in narrow compass is that the Jharkhand Public Service Commission floated an Advertisement being Advertisement No.01/2020, invited applications for appointment on various posts with respect to the Combined Civil Services Vacancies of the year, 2017, 2018 and 2019 in different departments of the State Government, wherein under Clause-4 the cut-off date for calculation of upper age limit of a candidate of Combined Civil Services 2017, 2018 and 2019 shall be 1/8/2011. Thereafter, the respondent No.4 vide press release notified the date for filing the online application i.e. from 1/3/2020 to 30/3/2020. It is further the case of the petitioners that they are aspirants of the JPSC CCS Examination, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and fulfilled all the requirements of the said advertisement for filling of the application form. But, the respondent No.3 vide letter dtd. 28/2/2020 requested the respondent No.4 for cancellation of the said Advertisement and as such, vide press release issued by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission, the CCS Examination-2017, 2018 and 2019 was cancelled in light of the above letter. Thereafter, Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Examination Rules, 2021 has been framed in exercise of powers conferred by the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India and the same was published in the Extraordinary Gazette No.59 dtd. 22/1/2021. In Sec. 4 of the said Rule, 2021 provide that commission shall announce vacancies in accordance with the requisitions received from the concerned cadre controlling department each years to be filled by direct recruitment and CCS Examination shall be held every year and in case the exam is not held in any particular year due to unforeseen reasons, then the Commission will hold the Examinations for two (or more) years together by clubbing the vacancies. Clause 6 of the said rules also provides for the maximum and minimum age of the candidates. It is further the case of the petitioners that vide Memo No.805 dtd. 5/2/2021 was issued by the respondent No.2 enunciating the policy for determination of the cut-off date for calculating maximum and minimum age limit for the forthcoming CCS Examination and the same was published in the extraordinary Gazette No.95 dtd. 6/2/2021. Subsequently, the respondent No.3 published an Advertisement being Advertisement No. 01/2021 invited applications for appointment to various post with respect to the combined civil services vacancies of the year, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 in different Departments of the Government, wherein under Clause 4 stipulated that the cut-off date for calculation of upper age limit of a candidate of Combined Civil Services 2017, 2018 and 2019 shall be 1/8/2016 in light of the Resolution No. 805 dtd. 5/2/2021 and Clause-5 of the said Advertisement provide that the upper age limit of unserved and economically weaker sec. candidate is 35 years. Aggrieved by the same, the petitioners, who are aspirants of CCS Examination and have crossed the upper age limit as per the new cut-off date and are no longer eligible to apply or fill the form for 7th CCS Examination, represented before the respondents, but no heed was paid. Hence, the petitioners have been constrained to knock the door of this Court.