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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
SANJAY KUMAR DWIVEDI, J.
Rahul Kumar, son of Radheshyam Prasad – Appellant
Versus
The State of Jharkhand through its Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand – Respondent
W.P.(S) No.1408, 494, 1428, 1449, 1451, 1468, 1486, 1487, 1501, 1533, 1583, 1613, 1718, 1827, 1984 of 2020
Decided on : 07-06-2021
Jharkhand Public Service Commission – 6th Combined Civil service Examination, 2016 – Reserved category i.e. Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Class-I and Backward Class-II - Petitioners belonging to unreserved category, who have secured more than 600 marks but they have not been selected - Addition of two qualifying papers i.e. Paper-I and Paper-II in preparing merit list is illegal and the marks of the qualifying paper cannot be added in total marks – Merit list not prepared by the JPSC by following the criteria laid down in the advertisement and as suggested by the Expert Committee
Finding of the Court:
merit list prepared by the JPSC is held to be illegal as marks of Paper-I was added in the merit list and Clause-13 of the advertisement with regard to minimum qualifying marks in each paper has not been followed and consequence thereof, the merit list prepared by the Commission is, hereby, quashed - JPSC has admitted that the marks of Paper-I has been added in the merit list of the Mains examination. The JPSC has also admitted that minimum qualifying marks of each paper has not been taken into consideration and only total marks has been taken for preparing the merit list -State Public Service Commission, although is a constitutional body, but that does not mean that if any illegality has been committed, which is apparent from the reasoning and finding recorded by the Court herein above, if the Court will not pass any direction to take appropriate legal action against the Commission, it will be unjustified
Result: Petition allowed
JUDGMENT :
Decided on : 07-06-2021
1. Heard Mr. Ajit Kumar, Mr. R.S. Mazumdar, learned Senior counsels for the petitioners, Mr. Manoj Tandon, Mr. Shubhasis Rasik Soren, Mr. Vikash Kumar, Mr. Vinit Boris Ekka, Mr. Sanjay Kumar Tiwari, Mr. Rahul Kumar, Ms. Apoorva Singh and Mr. Amritansh Vats, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, Mr. Rajiv Ranjan, learned Advocate General assisted by Mr. Mohan Kumar Dubey and Mr. Mukesh Kumar Sinha, learned counsels for the respondent-State, Mr. Sanjay Piprawall, learned counsel for the respondent-Jharkhand Public Service Commission and Mr. Sumeet Gadodia, Mrs. Shilpi Shandil, Mr. Ritesh Kumar Gupta, Mr. Indrajit Sinha, Mr. Bibhash Sinha, Mr. Hemant Kumar Shikarwar, Mr. Vijay Kumar Roy, Mr. Sushil Kumar Sharma, Mr. Anil Kumar Sinha, Mr. Mukesh Kumar Mehta, Mr. Anuj Kumar Trivedi and Mr. Jorong Jedan Sanga, learned counsel for the private respondents.
2. These writ petition have been heard through Video Conferencing in view of the guidelines of the High Court taking into account the situation arising due to COVID-19 pandemic. None of the parties have complained about any technical snag of audio-video and with their consent these matters have been heard on merit.
3. In all these writ petitions, the disputes arising out of 6th Combined Civil service Examination, 2016 floated by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as the JPSC) are the subject matter and with the consent of the parties, all these writ petitions have been heard together as common question of facts and laws are involved in these writ petitions.
4. In these writ petitions, four points have been raised and that is why the Court decided to bifurcate these writ petitions in four groups. In the first group, W.P.(S) No. 494 of 2020 comes in which the petitioners have challenged resolution no. 5562 dated 19.04.2017. In the second group, W.P.(S) No.1408 of 2020 and W.P.(S) No. 1501 of 2020 are coming in which the prayer is made for consideration on the ground that the petitioners belonging to unreserved category, who have secured more than 600 marks but they have not been selected. The further prayer is made in these two writ petitions that qualifying Paper-I marks have been added while preparing the merit list. In the third group, W.P.(S) No.1487 of 2020, W.P.(S) No.1984 of 2020, W.P.(S) No.1486 of 2020, W.P.(S) No.1451 of 2020, W.P.(S) No.1449 of 2020 and W.P.(S) No.1428 of 2020 are coming in which the prayer is made to consider the candidature in their respective reserved category i.e. Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Class-I and Backward Class-II respectively and to allocate Jharkhand Administrative Service to the petitioners. In the 4th group, W.P.(S) No.1533 of 2020, W.P.(S) No.1583 of 2020, W.P.(S) No.1468 of 2020, W.P.(S) No. 1827 of 2020, W.P.(S) No.1718 of 2020 and W.P.(S) No.1613 of 2020 are coming in which the prayer is made for quashing the result dated 21.04.2020 of 6th Combined Civil Service Examination, 2016 published by the JPSC and also the recommendation made by the JPSC to the State Government on the point of addition of minimum qualifying marks taken together in each paper, which is illegal. The prayer is also made for declaration that addition of two qualifying papers i.e. Paper-I and Paper-II in preparing merit list is illegal and the marks of the qualifying paper cannot be added in total marks.
5. The Court decided to bifurcate these writ petitions in the above manner. Accordingly, firstly group-I i.e. W.P.(S) No.494 of 2020 is being taken up for consideration in light of the arguments advanced by the learned counsel appearing for the parties.
6. The facts of W.P.(S) No.494 of 2020 are quoted herein below:
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