The main legal point established in the judgment is that for eligibility for appointment as Assistant Professors, publications must be in the public domain before the cut-off date, and mere submission or acceptance for future publication does not constitute actual publication.

AJAY KUMAR TRIPATHI, J.

All these appeals were taken up and heard separately, but since common questions of law emerge for consideration, they are being finally disposed off by a common judgment.

2. These appeals have been preferred by Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) against the order of the learned Single Judge dated 14.02.2014 since the learned Single Judge allowed the writ applications of all the private respondents giving a direction upon the BPSC, the appellant, to consider their case for appointment on the post of Assistant Professors in different streams for the medical colleges of the State of Bihar. In these appeals, the issue before the learned Single Judge was whether the BPSC was correct in its view of not calling the private respondents for interview because they refused to award marks under publication and since the minimum cut- off 10 marks was not reached, the private respondents approached the High Court through writs.

3. The learned senior counsel representing the appellant- BPSC submits that the learned Single Judge committed a serious error of law as well as fact by giving an interpretation as well as a direction that articles, which were not even published but only submitted for publication, was as good as publication and, therefore, they deserved to be granted marks against the would be publications or the publication, which saw the light of the day after the cut- off date, which was fixed as 31.07.2011 or even beyond the last date of application, which was fixed as 18.08.2011.

4. The thrust of the argument on behalf of the BPSC is that it is settled law that no candidate or a person can claim benefit of any kind in terms of eligibility which may have been acquired after the cut- off date. Contra, it is the stand of the learned senior counsel that all eligibility and requirements in terms of the advertisement for consideration for the post in question must be in place before the cut- off date. If it is not so then the BPSC has committed no wrong by not considering any publication which was published after the cut- off date or having been brought into existence just before the interview.

5. For Assistant Professors, requirement of publication is a must for award of marks under the head for publication. Marks can be awarded only for those publications which are in public domain of all the candidates before the cut- off date. They cannot draw advantage by making statements or producing certification that they have submitted their articles for publication before the cut- off date and that the editorial board of the respective medical journals had accepted those articles for future publication, though, admittedly, final publications came into existence only before the interview of the respective candidates. There is no dispute that before the cut- off date none of these candidates or respondents had publications in their favour. They had only produced certification that the publication was in the process.

6. Submission on behalf of the private respondents made are that the learned Single Judge has rightly considered the position emerging from the Minimum Qualification for Teachers in Medical Institutions (Amendment) Regulations, 2009, where publication include even matters accepted for publication. Such view has been taken by the learned Single Judge in the impugned order wherein reliance has been placed on clause 4 (A) (ii), which has been reproduced as part of the order and since arguments and rational of the learned Single Judge is based on the said provision, it is reproduced herein below as part of this order as well :

“3(a). In Clause 4(A) under the heading “Professor” as amended vide “Minimum Qualification for Teachers in Medical Institutions (Amendment) Regulations, 2009”, be

further amended by inserting the following proviso in 4(A)

(ii):-

“Provided that these research publications are published/accepted for publication in the Journals by the national Associations/Societies of the respective sp