IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.8108 of 2024 ======================================================

1. Ranjeet Kumar, S/o late Awadhesh Prasad Singh R/o House No.57, Road No.10, Indrapuri, P.O.- Keshri Nagar, P.S.- Patliputra, District- Patna-

800024.

2. Sunny Katyayan, S/o late Surya Kishor Khan, R/o Plot No.D-42, Flat No.302, 2nd Floor, Gali No.17, Hindon Vihar, Barola, Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh-201301.

3. Rajeev Kumar, S/o Sri Dinesh Kumar Verma, R/o E-84, Bhagirathi Vihar, P.O. and P.S.- Gokal Puri, North East Delhi-110094.

4. Mohd. Rashid @ Mohammad Rashid, Son of Vaseem Ahmad, R/o Village and P.O. Sehuwadeeh, P.S.- Baharia, Tehsil- Phoolpur, District- Allahabad (Prayagraj), Uttar Pradesh-212402

5. Gautam Mohan Shukla, S/o Bipin Mohan Shukla, R/o Bina Niwas, Village-

Manjhiladih, P.O. and P.S.-Tundi, District- Dhanbad, Jharkhand-828142.

... ... Petitioners Versus

1. The State of Bihar through Principal Secretary, General Administration Department, Government of Bihar, Patna.

2. The Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Bihar, Patna.

3. The Hon'ble Patna High Court, Patna through its Registrar General.

4. The Registrar General, Patna High Court, Patna.

... ... Respondents ======================================================

Appearance :

For the Petitioner : Mr. Binod Kumar Singh, Advocate Ms. Vagisha Pragya Vacaknavi, Advocate For the State : Ms. Binita Singh, S.C.-28 For the High Court : Mr. Piyush Lal, Advocate ======================================================

CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SANDEEP KUMAR C.A.V JUDGMENT Date : 09-01-2026 This writ petition is filed invoking the writ jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution inter alia praying for absorbing/regularizing the petitioners against the vacant permanent substantive posts of Personal Assistants (hereinafter to be referred as “P.A.”) in the establishment of this Court, who have been continuing on contract basis since their initial engagement from March-April, 2018, and to grant them all consequential benefits including regular pay scale and admissible allowances upon regularization of their services with effect from 31.10.2018.

2. The brief factual matrix relevant for the present purpose is that, the Patna High Court had published an advertisement on 23.03.2017 on its website inviting eligible candidates for direct recruitment to 100 vacant posts of P.A. under the ministerial establishment of this Court in the pay scale of Rs.9300-34800/- (Grade Pay of Rs. 4600) and usual allowances as admissible under the Rules. Responding to the aforesaid advertisement, the petitioners had applied within the stipulated time. Pursuant to the aforesaid recruitment process, the Online Test for recruitment to the post of P.A.-2017 was conducted on 10.12.2017. On 31.03.2018, it was notified vide notice issued by the Registrar General of this Court (Annexure P/3), that none of the appearing candidates including the present petitioners, met the minimum qualifying standard mentioned in Clause-5 of the Advertisement No. P.A./01/2017 and consequently none had qualified. In other words, all the candidates including the present petitioners stood unsuccessful.

3. Vide the same notice dated 31.03.2018, it was notified that owing to pressing need of manpower due to acute shortage of P.As. and in order to meet the requirement and exigencies of this Court, it was decided to engage top 100 candidates, from amongst the non-qualified candidates, purely on contractual basis for a period of six months on a consolidated pay of Rs.30,000/- only per month subject to the terms and conditions mentioned in their engagement letters, which was issued individually to each of the aforesaid candidates. Keeping in view the reservation policy and roster, as adopted by this Court, wherein only 75 candidates could be engaged since 25 candidates belonging to EBC, SC, ST and DQ category candidates could not make it within the said top 100 “un