IMPORTANT POINT
Appointment of Civil Judge (Junior Division) – Cancellation of candidature of candidates on technical grounds would be improper, unjustified and not warranted.

JUDGMENT :

Vikram Nath, J.

Leave granted in all the Special Leave Petitions.

2. For recruitment of 349 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Division), the Bihar Public Service Commission issued an Advertisement No. 6 of 2018, dated 23.8.2018 for conducting 30th Bihar Judicial Services Examination. The break-up of the 349 posts is as follows:

3. After conducting the Screening Test, Written Test and Interview, the Commission vide letter dated 02.12.2019 recommended names of 349 candidates in order of merit. According to the figures available, out of the 349 recommended candidates, four candidates did not turn up for counselling. As such appointment letters were issued on different dates from January, 2020 to December, 2020 to 345 candidates. Further out of these 345 candidates, three candidates did not turn up for joining. As such the candidature of seven candidates was cancelled by the State Government vide orders issued on different dates. The Appellants had admittedly secured higher marks than the last selected candidates in their respective categories but the Commission had cancelled their candidature for want of fulfilment of the conditions required as per the interview call letter.

4. One of the conditions required was to submit the originals of certificates detailed therein which included educational certificates, Caste certificates if claiming any benefit of reservation, No Objection Certificates of previous employer, Character Certificate of the last attended College/University and other certificates of residence etc. at the time of interview. Some of the candidates could not produce the original Certificates as required, as a result of which their candidatures were cancelled by the Commission vide their meeting dated 27.11.2019. In its 102nd meeting of the Commission organised on 27.11.2019, the eligibility of the candidates on the basis of their educational certificates, mark sheets, documents etc. presented at the time of the interview which was conducted in between the dates of 21.10.2019 to 27.10.2019 under the 30th Bihar Judicial Service Examination (Advertisement No. 06/2018), the Commission examined the short comings and the non-fulfilment of the requirement of the production of the original documents/certificates at the time of the interview and after dealing with each of the candidates, found deficit in fulfilling the said requirement and cancelled the candidature of as many as 58 candidates for different reasons.

5. Some of these candidates approached the Patna High Court by way of different Writ Petitions, either singly or jointly. Division bench of the Patna High Court vide Judgment impugned did not find favour with such candidates and dismissed their petitions. Aggrieved by the Judgment of the Patna High Court, the present Special Leave Petitions have been preferred by eight candidates. It is not in issue that the ground for rejection of the candidature of these candidates was only and only non-production of the original Certificates. The Commission has admitted these eight Appellants before us have scored higher marks from the last selected candidates in their respective categories.

6. Out of these eight candidates, five namely Mayank Kumar Pandey (SLP (C) No. 15819/21), Aarav Jain (SLP (C) No. 10776/21), Ashish Chandra (SLP (C) No. 16198/21), Siddharth Sharma (SLP (C) No. 11089/21) and Sanjay Kumar Mishra (SLP (C) No. 11089/21) belong to the General/ Unserved Category. Sumit Kumar (SLP (C) No. 15809/21) belongs to the EBC Category, Anita Kumar (SLP (C) No. 809/22) belongs to SC Category and Anand Raj (SLP (C) No.15819/21) belongs to BC Category.

7. With respect to these 8 candidates named above, the following shortcomings/deficiencies wer