Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, J. – Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned counsel for the Bihar Public Service Commission as also learned counsel for the State.

2. Petitioner, in the present case, is seeking the following reliefs: –

“i. For issuance of an order, direction or a writ of certiorari for quashing and setting aside the result dated 01.06.2023 published by the respondent Bihar Public Service Commission against the advertisement number 66/2020 published for recruitment to the post of Assistant Professor in the subject of Mathematics in various Government Engineering Colleges, to the extent to which the petitioner has been excluded and has been denied the benefit of horizontal reservation under the category of Grand Child of Ex-Freedom Fighter whereas respondent no. 10 has been illegally selected in place of the petitioner.

ii. For issuance of an order, direction or a writ of mandamus for directing the respondent authorities to consider the petitioner for appointment under the category of grand Child of Ex-Freedom Fighter against advertisement number 66/2020 published for appointment to the post of Assistant Professor in the subject of Mathematics in different Engineering Colleges in the State of Bihar.

iii. For issuance of an order, direction or an appropriate writ for keeping one post under the general category to be vacant during the pendency of this writ application inasmuch as the last selected male candidate under the general category ought not have been selected if the petitioner was considered for appointment under the category of Grand Child of Ex-Freedom Fighter.”

3. It is the case of the petitioner that he applied for appointment to the post of Assistant Professor in the subject of Mathematics in Government Engineering College for which an advertisement bearing no. 66/2020 was issued by the Bihar Public Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as the “Commission”). A copy of the advertisement has been placed on the record as Annexure ‘P1’ to the writ application.

4. The petitioner filed his application and claimed that he is the grand-son of Freedom Fighter. As per the terms for advertisement, he would have been entitled to be considered against the horizontal reservation to the extent of 2% provided for the family members of the Freedom Fighter. The petitioner enclosed an identity card which was issued on 11.03.2008 by the District Magistrate, Patna.

5. It is stated that the Commission issued an admit card in favour of the petitioner, he appeared in the examination, passed the written examination and was called for interview. It is stated that the petitioner informed the Commission at the time of his interview that he had applied for obtaining a certificate as envisaged in the advertisement (Annexure ‘P1’), however, such certificate was yet to be issued. He, however produced a copy of the identity card which was in his possession. The petitioner received the certificate on 07.03.2023 whereafter he forwarded the same to the Commission on 10.03.2023, at this stage, the petitioner visited the office of the Commission on 11.03.2023 and also submitted a copy of the certificate.

6. The grievance of the petitioner is that when final result was published by the Commission on 01.06.2023 in which total 108 candidates were selected and out of that, 45 candidates were under the general/unreserved category, the name of petitioner did not appear in the select list. It is stated that the candidate at serial no. 33 namely, Atul Srivastava had been selected, since the petitioner had been denied the benefit of reservation under the category of the grand child of Ex-Freedom Fighter.

7. The submission of learned counsel for the petitioner is that the Commission has provided opportunities to those candidates who had not submitted the exemption certificate showing that they had obtained their Ph.D. degree prior to July 11, 2009 by fulfilling the required conditions.

8. Learned counsel has taken this Court through Annexures ‘P10’