ORDER :

With consent of the parties, hearing of the matter has been done through video conferencing and there is no complaint whatsoever regarding audio and visual quality.

2. The instant intra-court appeal, under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent, is directed against the order/judgment dated 07.06.2021 passed by learned Single Judge in W.P. (S) No. 494 of 2020 whereby and whereunder the learned Single Judge, refusing to interfere with Resolution issued vide Memo No. 5562 dated 19.04.2017 by which it was decided by the State Government that the candidates who have secured minimum qualifying marks in their respective category shall be considered selected for Main Combined Civil Services Examination, 2016 in pursuance to Advertisement No. 23 of 2016, dismissed the writ petition.

3. The brief facts of the case, as per pleadings made in the writ petition, which require to be enumerated read as under:

On 17.05.2015, the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (in short ‘JPSC’) which is the examining body for conducting competitive examination for Combined Civil Services for the State of Jharkhand, came out with notification for 6th Combined Civil Services Preliminary Examination, 2016 vide Advertisement No. 01 of 2015, which was later on cancelled and a fresh advertisement being Advertisement No. 23/2016 dated 06.10.2016 was published for filling up 326 vacancies.

Clause 13(i) of the advertisement stipulates the minimum qualifying marks which the candidates have to obtain in the Preliminary Test as well as in the Main Examination and Clause 13(ii) stipulates that on the basis of Preliminary Test, candidates of 15 times category-wise vacancy shall be short-listed for the Main Examination.

The Preliminary Test for 6th Combined Civil Services Preliminary Examination, 2016 was conducted on 18.12.2016, wherein the writ petitioners participated along with other candidates. The result of Preliminary Test was published on 23.02.2017, in which, total 5138 candidates were shortlisted. After publication of said result, the JPSC issued one press release on 02.03.2017, in which, it was clarified that: (i).candidates totaling 15 times of the vacant posts and those who have obtained similar marks have been shortlisted for the Main Examination; (ii).there is no benefit of reservation applicable in the Preliminary Examination; and (iii).no category-wise cut-off marks have been notified.

The aforesaid result of Preliminary Examination was challenged by filing writ petition being W.P. (S) No. 1864 of 2017 [Deb Kumar Vs. State of Jharkhand & Ors].

However, during pendency of the writ petition, the State of Jharkhand issued another Resolution as contained in Memo No. 5562 dated 19.04.2017, whereby it was decided that (i). all such candidates belonging to the reserved categories who obtained marks are equal or more than that of the last placed candidate in the list of fifteen times of the shortlisted unreserved candidates (barring specially abled category) shall be considered successful for the main examination (ii) the earlier resolution dated 13.04.2016 prescribing the ratio of 15 times of the notified vacancy shall be deemed to be relaxed to the aforesaid extent as stated in (i) above.

The learned Co-ordinate Single Bench disposed of the said writ petition being W.P. (S) No. 1864 of 2017 taking into consideration Notification No. 5562 dated 19.04.2017 by which decision was taken that all such candidates belonging to the reserved categories who obtained marks equal or more than that of the last placed candidate in the list of fifteen times of the shortlisted unreserved candidates (barring specially abled category) shall be considered successful for the main examination as also by considering the submission advanced on behalf of State to the effect that in view of such policy decision of the State, the JPSC is required to publish the amended result and as such the learned Coordinate Single Bench directed the JPSC to take steps for publication of amended results in te