JUDGMENT :

1. The present writ petition has been filed for directing the respondent-Central Selection Board of Constable, Bihar, Patna (hereinafter to be referred to as the “respondent-Board”) to declare the petitioner to have passed the written and physical examination for being appointed as Constable in pursuant to Advertisement no. 01 of 2017 and to further direct the respondent-Board to appoint the petitioner on the post of Constable.

2. The brief facts of the case are that the Police Headquarters vide memo dated 30.06.2017 had sent requisition to the respondent-Board for initiating recruitment process for appointment of 9900 Constables in the District Police Force-B.M.P. Battalions and other Units, whereafter the Board had published an advertisement bearing Advertisement no. 01 of 2017 on 29.07.2017 for recruitment of 9900 Constables and applications were invited from the suitable candidates, to be filled up by 30.08.2017. The required essential qualifications have been prescribed in the said advertisement including Educational Qualifications, Height, Chest Measurement, Age Limit and the mode and manner of Written Examination as also the Physical Evaluation Test.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the petitioner had filled up the application form online on 15.08.2017, however inadvertently while filling the application form online, the caste of the petitioner was mistakenly mentioned as O.B.C. instead of E.B.C. Nonetheless, the petitioner had received the Admit Card, whereafter she had appeared and passed the written examination held on 15.10.2017, inasmuch as another Admit Card was issued to the petitioner to appear in the Physical Test to be held on 16.03.2018. In fact, the petitioner had also cleared the Physical Test and consequently, she was asked to submit her certificates for verification, when the above mistake committed by the petitioner regarding wrong mentioning of her caste was detected. The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that atleast, the candidature of the petitioner be considered under the General Category by the respondent- Board.

4. Per contra, the learned counsel for the respondent-Board has submitted that it has been specifically mentioned in the Advertisement that if any candidate makes any wrong entry of Reservation Category in the application form then the candidature of such a candidate would be rejected. It is submitted that in the written examination conducted by the respondent-Board, altogether 1051864 candidates had appeared and as far as the petitioner is concerned, she having applied under the Backward Class Female Non-Home Guard category, she was issued Admit Card accordingly. In Clause 20 of the said application form, a candidate has to give declaration that he/ she would not use unfair means in the examination and in case, if anything is found wrong or incorrect, his/ her candidature would be rejected and legal action would be taken. It is further submitted that the petitioner had appeared in the written examination and had passed the same, whereafter she was selected to appear in the Physical Evaluation Test, wherein also, she had appeared on 16.03.2018, however during verification of documents, it transpired that the petitioner had not produced the certificate of Backward Class category, which had been mentioned in her application form, rather she had produced certificate pertaining to Extremely Backward Class category, hence the candidature of the petitioner was cancelled on account of “Mismatch in Application Form Data with Original Documents”. It is thus submitted that if any candidate enters his wrong reservation category then the candidature of that candidate has to be rejected in light of the aforesaid stipulation in the Advertisement, hence the candidature of the petitioner has rightly been rejected.

In this regard, the learned counsel for the respondents has referred to a judgment rendered by the learned Division Bench of this Court in the ca