ORDER :

1. The petitioner being an applicant for selection and appointment as a Constable in the Police Department of Hazaribagh has filed this writ application with a prayer for quashing Memo No. 775/Ra.Ka. dated 22.02.2013 annexed as Annexure-7 to the writ application, issued by the Superintendent of Police, Hazaribagh on the ground that this is ultra-vires to the constitutional scheme of equality and fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India and also right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

2. The facts of the case at present are not disputed. The petitioner is a member of Extremely Backward Class, E.B.C. (BC-1) of Jharkhand and a permanent resident of village-Karuakhurd, P.O. Ranka Bouliya, P.S. and District-Garhwa. He completed his secondary education in the year 2001 and higher secondary education in the year 2004 from Jay Kay Nagar High School, Raniganj, West Bengal and he secured second division in the said examinations.

An advertisement was issued in daily newspaper on 25.03.2010, inviting applications for appointment of constables against 6796 vacant sanctioned posts in the district of Ranchi, Hazaribag, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Palamau, Garhwa, Latehar, Koderma and all other districts of the State of Jharkhand. The petitioner participated in the examination and as per the result published on 03.06.2012 in the said daily newspaper, the petitioner bearing Roll No. 15391 was placed at Serial No. 18 in the group of Non-Home Guards, Extremely Backward Class-E.B.C. (BC-1). The respondent no. 4-Superintendent of Police, Hazaribagh, vide Memo No. 3502/ Ra.Ka. dated 09.06.2012 (Annexure-5 to the writ application) in the light of Memo No. 368/Ba.Ko. dated 31.05.2012 of respondent no. 3 called the petitioner with all the original documents regarding educational, caste, residential, birth certificates, etc., along with four copies of passport size photos for verification in his office on 25.06.2012, but he was not given appointment and, therefore, the petitioner made representation before respondent no. 4 and in response to his representation, respondent no. 4 on 22.02.2013 informed that the eligibility of the petitioner has been cancelled on the ground of his passing such examination from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. Thereafter, the petitioner made several attempts to convince the authorities to act upon the eligibility to give him appointment, but as he was not given the appointment, he filed the present writ application.

3. The matter was originally placed before the learned Single Judge and the learned Single Judge vide the order passed on 06.01.2017 referred the matter to the Division Bench and after obtaining consent from the then Acting Chief Justice, the matter was placed before the Division Bench.

4. The central question that arises in this case is regarding the restriction provided in the Jharkhand State Police Recruitment Rules, 2014. It provides that the candidates should have passed 10th from educational institutions of the State of Jharkhand. Such clause was taken into consideration while refusing appointment to the petitioner.

5. In course of hearing, learned counsel for the State raised two objections. The preliminary being the maintainability of the writ application in view of the fact that the petitioner has appeared in the examination and after being declared unsuccessful has challenged the conditions therein. We are of the opinion that the petitioner was not unsuccessful in the examination, rather his application was accepted by the authorities and the selection authority conducted examination wherein the petitioner was allowed to compete with other candidates and was declared successful. The cause of action arose when his credentials/certificates were verified by respondent no. 4 and they found that he has passed out from the schools and Inter college from the State of West Bengal, which