BHASKAR Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the preliminary test result (Annexure-3 to the writ petition) declared with respect to Jharkhand Combined Assistant Engineer Direct Recruitment Examination being Advertisement No. 05/2019 (Annexure-1 to the writ petition) conducted by the respondent no. 3 - Jharkhand Public Service Commission on 19/1/2020 since benefit of reservation has been extended in the said preliminary test result which is not permissible in the eyes of law as there is no State policy to extend such reservation at the stage of preliminary test and is also contrary to the terms of advertisement, applicable rules and various judicial pronouncements made on the said issue. Further prayer has been made for issuance of direction upon the respondent-JPSC to publish a fresh revised result of the aforesaid preliminary test strictly in terms with advertisement, applicable rules and the State Policy. The petitioners have also prayed for issuance of direction upon the respondents to consider their case so far as the preliminary test is concerned, as the respondent-Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) has deviated from the terms of advertisement, applicable rules and the State policy due to which the petitioners have been seriously prejudiced as they could not qualify for the mains examination.

(2.) Brief background of the case is that Advertisement No. 05/2019 was notified and uploaded in the website of the JPSC in month of October, 2019 inviting applications from eligible candidates for Combined Assistant Engineer Direct Recruitment Competitive Examination to be conducted for filing up the posts of Assistant Engineer - (Civil-542 posts) and (Mechanical-95 posts) - Total 637 posts in Road Construction Department, Water Resources Department and Drinking Water and Sanitation Department, Government of Jharkhand. Pursuant to the said advertisement, the petitioners filled up the forms under unreserved category for the post of Assistant Engineer (Civil) and appeared in the Preliminary Test held on 19/1/2020. The result of Preliminary Test was published on 14/8/2020 in the website of JPSC, however, the petitioners were declared unsuccessful in the same.

(3.) Mr. Amritansh Vats, learned counsel for the petitioners, submits that while publishing the preliminary test result, the respondent-JPSC has extended the benefit of reservation due to which considerable number of reserved category candidates who have obtained marks at par with the cut off marks of unreserved category, their candidature have been placed under unreserved category. It is further submitted that separate and different cut-off marks for male and female of EWS Category have been fixed which is nowhere mentioned in the Jharkhand Engineering Service Appointment Rules, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as -the Rules, 2016) or in the said advertisement. It is also submitted that the said action amounts to categorization within a category and the same is impermissible. The JPSC has given specific cut-off marks for the candidates who have claimed benefits of horizontal reservation and has also extended the benefit of said reservation which is not permissible in law in absence of any such provision in the Rules, 2016. It is further submitted that the benefit of reservation was also extended in the preliminary test of 7th to 10th Civil Services Examination and only after learned Division Bench of this Court in the case of "Kumar Sanyam and Anr. Vs. The State of Jharkhand and Ors." [L.P.A No. 13 of 2022] made certain queries from learned counsel for the State of Jharkhand and JPSC with respect to publication of preliminary test result of 7th to 10th Civil Services Examination, the JPSC itself sought to revise the entire result of said preliminary test by not extending the benefit of reservation due to which new candidates belonging to un-reserved category were shortlisted and several candidates belonging to reserved categories were removed from the revised preliminary test result. Subsequently, on publishing the revised result, the appellants of LPA No. 13 of 2022 were allowed to withdraw the same vide order dtd. 15/2/2022. It is also submitted that total number of posts advertised for Assistant Engineer (Civil) is 542 and as per Clause 11(A)(iv) of the said advertisement, 10 times result should have been published against the advertised posts meaning thereby that total 5420 candidates should have been shortlisted for mains examination, however, only 4536 candidates have been shortlisted which is unjustified also in view of the fact that around 21,000 candidates had appeared in the P.T. The petitioner represented the JPSC through emails dtd. 4/2/2022 and 16/2/2022 requesting it to amend the preliminary test result by not extending the benefit of reservation in preliminary test, however, of no avail. It is further submitted that the petitioner no. 1 is one mark short of the cut-off marks whereas other petitioners have obtained slightly less marks than the cut-off marks fixed for the candidates of general category. As such, if the candidates of reserved category are not included in the unreserved category, the petitioners will also be successful in the Preliminary Test, who have been seriously prejudiced by such arbitrary action of the respondents.