ORAL JUDGMENT

Date : 03-12-2024 Heard the parties.

2. The petitioner is aggrieved with the decision of the Bihar Technical Service Commission (hereinafter refereed to as ‘the Commission’) which was duly uploaded on the website of the Commission on 16.06.2021 to the extent by which the candidature of the petitioner came to be rejected.

3. The brief facts of the case are that the petitioner having completed his Matriculation, passed Part-I and Part-II of Technician Engineering Membership Examination (T.E.M.E.) in Civil Engineering equivalent to Diploma in Civil Engineering held in the year 2010; from the Institution of Civil Engineer (India) and finally passed the T.E.M.E. on 26.08.2010 by securing 570 marks out of 900 marks. The copies of the certificates have been placed on record as Annexure-1 series.

4. Having qualification of the Diploma in Civil Engineering, the petitioner was selected as Junior Engineer (Civil) on contract basis in the Minor Irrigation Department along with other candidates vide Memo No. 7647 dated 28.12.2011. Pursuant thereto, the petitioner has joined his service as Junior Engineer (Civil) in Minor Irrigation Department, Ara on 04.02.2012 and since then he has been rendering his services. While he was working on the aforesaid post, in the meantime, the Commission came out with an Advertisement No. 01 of 2019 for the appointment of Junior Engineers under the Civil, Mechanical and Electrical. The petitioner on being found eligible, applied for the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) through online on 01.04.2019. The copy of the advertisement has also been placed on record as Annexure-4 to this writ petition.

5. Suffice it to observe that for the purposes of appointment to the post of Junior Engineer (Civil), the eligibility criteria was also mentioned therein that for the subordinate engineering cadre, the candidate must required to have the Diploma in Civil/Mechanical Engineering or equivalent qualification holder. For Technical qualifications/eligiblities for selection:- (a) Diploma in Civil/Mechanical Engineering issued by the institutes recognized by AICTE, or equivalent qualification which has obtained recognition from the State Technical Board or (b) Non-Distance Mode Diploma in Civil/Mechanical Engineering or equivalent qualification issued by Deemed University under, UGC Act.

6. The petitioner having qualification of Diploma Civil Engineering, furnished his personal details including educational qualification with work experience of five years ten months as a Junior Engineer (Civil) in Minor Irrigation Department, Government of Bihar. Besides the afore-noted educational qualification certificates, the petitioner has also submitted disability certificate and the OBC certificate. 7. The petitioner along with other candidates were called in counselling which was duly held on 18.12.2020. After the process of counselling being completed, the final result was uploaded on the website on 16.06.2021. It is to the utter shock and surprise to the petitioner that the column derived percentage point, the petitioner has been awarded 0 marks. The column marks of works experience, the petitioner has again been awarded 0 marks and this way total combined point is shown to be 0. It has been shown that the educational qualification of the petitioner is not in accordance with Clause 2 of the advertisement; the educational institution of the petitioner is not recognized from AICTE; not passed the Diploma through Non-

Distance mode from a Deemed University.

8. Assailing the impugned order whereby the candidature of the petitioner has been rejected, the petitioner has drawn the attention of this Court to Annexures-13, 14 and 15 to the writ petition and contended that the Institution in question, namely, Institution of Civil Engineers (India), from where the petitioner has obtained the Diploma certificate, the same is duly recognized by the AICTE and MHRD. With reference to Annexure-13, it is further contended that All India Coun