Eligibility for reservation benefits requires valid caste certificates issued before the cut-off date and appropriate educational qualifications for the applied position.

JUDGMENT :

The present writ petition has been filed for quashing the Important Notice bearing No. 3653 dated 18.06.2019 (Annexure-9 to the writ petition) issued under the signature of the respondent no. 5 – the Controller of Examination, Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission, Ranchi, so far it relates to the petitioner, whereby the benefit of reservation under EBC-I category has been denied to her on the ground of non-submission of valid caste certificate issued prior to the cut-off date i.e., 25.04.2017 and she has been treated as ‘General’ category candidate for the purpose of appointment of Trained Graduate Teacher from eligible candidates.

2. Learned counsel for the respondent-JSSC, submits that vide Important Notice no. 3653 dated 18.06.2019, the candidature of the petitioner under EBC-I category has not been considered on the ground that she has failed to produce a valid caste certificate as per Clause 4(k)(v) of the said notice and as such, her candidature has been considered under ‘general’ category.

3. It is further submitted that Clause 8 of Advertisement No. 21/2016 speaks that a candidate who is claiming reservation is required to submit caste certificate issued by the Deputy Commissioner of District/Sub-Division/Sub-Divisional Officer in the prescribed format. For Extremely Backward Class (Schedule-1) category, the candidate was required to submit caste certificate in the format given in Appendix-II of the said advertisement. Further, the caste certificate was essentially required to be issued after 2.06.2016 and before or till the last date of filling of the application form i.e., 25.4.2017. Clause 9 of the said advertisement further speaks that in the online application, the candidate was required to fill the certificate number and date of issuance of the caste certificate. However, at the time of filling up the application form, the petitioner had submitted caste certificate no. 289178 dated 27.07.2016 issued by the Circle Officer, Sadar, Hazaribagh in her husband’s name and as such, a show cause notice was issued to the petitioner on 04.01.2019. In response to the said show cause notice, the petitioner filed certificate no. 23674 dated 9.01.2019 issued by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Sadar, Hazaribagh in the name of her father, which was also not valid for extending the benefit of reservation since the same was issued after the last date of submission of online application form i.e., 25.04.2017.

4. Learned counsel for the respondent-JSSC puts reliance on a judgment of this Court rendered in the case of “Abhijit Kumar Gupta Vs. The State of Jharkhand & Ors.” [W.P.(S) No. 1393 of 2019], wherein it has been held as under:

10. The claim of the petitioner is that at the time of document verification he had produced two caste certificates; one issued on 19.12.2016 by the Circle Officer, Mohanpur and another issued on 17.03.2018 by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Deoghar. So far as the caste certificate dated 19.12.2016 was concerned, the same was not issued by the Deputy Commissioner/Sub-Divisional Officer as was mandated in Clause 8 of the said advertisement and as such it was not accepted. So far as the caste certificate dated 17.03.2018 issued by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Deoghar was concerned, the same was issued after the last date of submission of the application form and obviously details of the same was not mentioned in the online application form and as such the said caste certificate was also not accepted by the respondent-JSSC as valid for consideration of his candidature under BC-II category. Thus, this Court does not find any infirmity in the decision taken by the respondent-JSSC in treating the petitioner under general/unreserved category candidate.

5. In the present case also, it is the admitted case of the petitioner that caste certificate no. 289178 dated 27.07.2016 submitted at the time of filling of the application form was issued by the Circle Officer, Sadar, Hazaribagh. After the show cause notice issued