ORDER

The present writ application has been filed for a direction to the respondent- authorities to declare the petitioner selected as a reserved category candidate for the post of Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (hereinafter referred to as “A.N.M.”) pursuant to Advertisement No. 03010216 dated 17.02.2016 (Annexure – “1” to the writ petition).

2. The brief facts giving rise to the present writ application is that the petitioner completed her Revised Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery Course from Tirhut A.N.M. Training School, Muzaffarpur and since March, 2014 she was working as A.N.M. at Primary Health Centre, Dariyapur in the district of Saran on contract basis. The petitioner further stated that the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (hereinafter referred to as “Commission”) issued advertisement on 17.02.2016 for appointment of A.N.M. in the Department of Health, Govt. of Bihar vide Advertisement No. 03010216 examination of which was to be conducted by the Commission. The date of submission of Online application was fixed from 24.02.2016 to 18.03.2016. According to the petitioner the petitioner was fulfilling the requisite qualification and applied for the post of A.N.M. under E.B.C. category along with requisite certificates including caste certificate of E.B.C. as in the month of February, 2016 the “LOHARA” caste of the petitioner was in the category of Extreme Backward Class. The petitioner was issued counselling – cum- interview letter dated 29/09/2016. Petitioner has annexed Annexure – 3 to the writ petition by which on 08.08.2016 the General Administration Department, Govt. of Bihar issued a letter to different functionaries including the Commission by which the State Government conveyed its approval for issuance of certificate of Scheduled Tribe in favour of the persons belonging to “LOHARA” caste. The said communication has been issued in the light of Repeal and Amending Act, 2016 (No. 23/2016) whereby the Constitution (Schedule Tribes) Order Amendment Act, 2006 (No. 48/2006) has been repealed.

3. The further case of the petitioner is that as per the counselling-cum- interview letter the petitioner was required to appear on 30.11.2016 and before her appearance in the counselling she obtained caste certificate from the competent authority and since the petitioner belongs to the “LOHARA” community by virtue of the letter dated 08.08.2016 of the General Administration Department, Govt. Of Bihar, Anchal Adhikari, Barauli (Siwan) issued caste certificate dated 11.11.2016 in the category of Schedule Tribe. The petitioner in paragraph – 11 of the writ petition has stated that on the date of counselling / interview the petitioner produced all original certificates including the certificate of her caste which she had declared at the time of filling up of online application form as E.B.C. as well as certificate of Schedule Tribe dated 11/11/2016. The petitioner contended that in the list of the successful candidates published by the Commission the name of the petitioner did not find place either in the Scheduled Tribe or Most Backward Class category whereas the cut-off marks for Scheduled Tribe was 39.28 and Most Backward Class was 45.82.

4. Respondent nos. 6 & 7 / Commission filed a counter affidavit controverting the claim of the petitioner stating therein that petitioner had applied under Extremely Backward Category which would be evident from her application. In paragraph- 8 of the counter affidavit the respondents have stated that from perusal of reservation clause (iii) of the advertisement it would be evident that the terms of advertisement clearly stipulated that no change in the reservation category will be allowed subsequently once a candidate has claimed a particular reservation category. The said clause further stipulates that under no circumstances any request for correction/ change in the category of reservation shall be entertained. For claiming wrong reservation category she was kept in unreserved category. The petitioner obtained