JUDGMENT

Prabhat Kumar Singh, J. - Heard Sri Bindhyachal Singh, learned counsel for the appellant and learned A.C. to Addl. Advocate General 3 for the respondent/State.

2. This Letters Patent Appeal has been preferred against the order dated 11-04-2019 passed in writ application i.e. C.W.J.C. No. 5675 of 2019, whereby and whereunder, the writ application, Patna High Court L.P.A No.580 of 2019 dt. 04-02-2020 preferred by the appellant against his removal from the service, as contained in Memo No. 150 dated 12-01-2019, was dismissed.

3. The short fact, as narrated in the memo of appeal, is that an advertisement dated 25-08-2016, bearing Advertisement No. 01 of 2010, was published by the office of Central Selection Board (Constable Recruitment), whereby online application for the post of Constable/Driver was invited and in the said advertisement, the educational qualification was prescribed as Intermediate on or before 1st August, 2016. The last date for submission of application forms was on 28-09-2016. In lieu thereof, the petitioner (appellant) also applied online for the said post on 24-09-2016. Subsequently, after physical eligibility test and verification of documents, final result was published, in which, the petitioner was selected and he was allowed to join the post on 25-09-2017. Thereafter, his service book was also opened, however; subsequently the Officer on Special Duty, Central Selection Board (Constable Recruitment) {hereinafter referred to as the 'Board'}, Patna, vide his Memo No. 871 dated 12-06-2018, informed the Superintendent of Police, Jehanabad that the petitioner did not pass Intermediate examination on 01-08-2016 and as such, he was not eligible to participate in the selection process and further he directed to take action against the petitioner after initiating a departmental proceeding. Thereafter, on the basis of aforesaid letter, a Patna High Court L.P.A No.580 of 2019 dt. 04-02-2020 departmental proceeding was initiated against the petitioner for the charge of not possessing the requisite qualification for the appointment to the post of Constable/Driver on the date, as prescribed in the advertisement i.e. 01-08-2016. Thereafter, after completing all the formalities of departmental proceeding i.e. show cause notices, submission of inquiry report etc., the petitioner was removed from the service, vide order, contained in Memo No. 150 dated 12-01-2019 issued by the Superintendent of Police, Jehanabad, which was under-challenge before the Writ Court.

4. During pendency of this appeal, an interlocutory application, vide I.A. No. 1 of 2019, was also filed by the appellant with an alternative prayer, which is as follows:

"For alternatively issuance of writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ/order/direction to the respondent authorities for a direction to allow the petitioner/appellant to continue to work on the post of police driver on contractual basis as earlier on the basis of his initial appointment."

5. Learned counsel for the appellant, while assailing the impugned order, submitted that since the appellant (petitioner) was working on contract basis since 2009 and at that very time, the minimum educational qualification was Matriculation, the case of the appellant was required to be considered against the vacancy of 2009, since the vacancy of 2009 has been clubbed. In support of Patna High Court L.P.A No.580 of 2019 dt. 04-02-2020 his aforesaid submission, learned counsel for the appellant has placed reliance on paragraph 9 of a decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court reported in Y.V. Rangaiah vs. J. Sreenivasa Rao, (1983) 3 SCC 284

6. It was further submitted by learned counsel for the appellant that once the petitioner has been selected, after consideration of his entire documents, at subsequent stage, he cannot be removed from the service on the ground that he does not possess requisite qualification i.e. Intermediate on the prescribed date, since all the documents were supplied by