Harish Kumar, J.—Heard the parties.

2. The petitioner, an aspirant for the post of Senior Secondary School Teacher, in the subject of Music, has invoked the prerogative writ jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking a direction upon the respondent authorities to forthwith conduct his counselling / document verification for his appointment on the aforenoted post after having been declared successful in the Teacher Recruitment Examination-2 (TRE-2) for the subject of Music.

3. Shorn of lengthy details; the petitioner did his B.A. (Prabhakar) from Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad in the subject of Vocal (Music) and finally done his Post Graduate from Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh in Vocal (Music). On 04.11.2023, the Bihar Public Service Commission (in short ‘the BPSC’) published Advertisement, bearing no. 27 of 2023, for conducting TRE-2 for appointment of teachers in Government Schools in the State of Bihar. In the subject of Music, altogether 582 posts were advertised for appointment of Senior Secondary Teachers, out of which under Backward Class Category 71 seats were notified. The petitioner on being found eligible and possessing the qualification in the subject of Music, applied against the said post and accordingly the Admit Card was issued. The examination of Senior Secondary Teachers was held on 15.12.2023 and the petitioner secured 83 marks. The BPSC issued merit list of all the candidates, who have qualified and the name of the petitioner stands at serial no. 303 under Unreserved category. Consequently, the BPSC on 25.12.2023 notified the districts of all the candidates and the petitioner was accordingly allotted the district of Madhubani. The process of counselling/document verification in the district of Madhubani started from 25.12.2023 and the same was directed to continue till the time the counselling of all the candidates gets completed. The notification of counselling is marked as Annexure-P/8.

4. The petitioner participated in the process of counselling and ensured his appearance on 28.12.2023 along with his Pan Card, as till the scheduled date the Aadhaar Card, for which the petitioner applied on 30.10.2023, was not issued and the document verification of the petitioner was conducted on the sole ground that he does not have Aadhaar Card. The petitioner thereafter appeared on 01.01.2024 and 08.01.2024, but the concerned respondents refused to allow the petitioner to participate in the document verification. The petitioner approached to all the authorities concerned, including the District Education Officer, Madhubani by filing detailed representation, but to no avail and finally the process of counselling continued till 31.03.2024. However, by the said date, neither the petitioner got the Aadhaar Card nor he was allowed by the authorities to participate in the counselling. Finally, disheartened with the action of the respondent authorities, the petitioner preferred the present writ application.

5. Mr. Shashank Chandra, learned Advocate for the petitioner submitted that before issuance of the advertisement, had applied for issuance of Aadhaar Card with the UIDAI, Government of India on 30.10.2023. The acknowledgment receipt of application dated 30.10.2023 clearly stipulated that for generating Aadhaar number, 90 days time would be taken. Despite clear stipulation, the same was not generated within the stipulated period, rather the Aadhaar card of the petitioner came to be issued on 03.05.2024, as a result of which the petitioner has been denied appointment on the ground of non-production of Aadhaar card. Clause 10, Note (1) of the Advertisement stipulated that the candidate, at the time of submitting Online application form, if does not provide the details of Aadhaar number, then such candidates have to pay extra Rs.200/- for their Biometric verification. The said clause also says that at the time of verification, it is expected that the candidate will provide Aadhaar number,