PATNA, India, Sept. 9 -- Patna High Court issued the following judgment on Aug. 11:
Heard the parties.
2. The petitioners, who are the aspirants for the post of Trade Instructor (Fitter) in terms with Advertisement No. 10 of 2023, have approached this Court on being aggrieved with the Resolution no. 03/Pari-BTSC-64/2019-3343 dated 30.10.2024, whereby the Bihar Technical Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as 'the Commission') came out with an important notice in connection with subject "Advertisement", in consequent to which the petitioners have been excluded from the zone of consideration, by changing the rule of game in midway of the recruitment process. The petitioners further sought a direction commanding upon the respondent Commission to select and appoint the petitioners on the basis of the prescription of the subject "Advertisement" by treating the petitioners under the prescribed reserved category of Scheduled Caste, on which category they were falling on the date of advertisement.
3. Assailing the action of the respondent Commission and the impugned resolution dated 30.10.2024, learned Advocate for the petitioners, Mr. Ram Shankar Das submitted with all vehemence that the method and manner of selection in the midst cannot be altered/changed depriving the petitioners of the guarantee of equal opportunity in the matter of public employment; so the petitioners are entitled to be considered for appointment against the post, which were duly advertised and filled up as per the Rules prevalent at the time of advertisement.
4. Referring to the Advertisement, especially Clause 4(vii), learned Advocate for the petitioners submitted that there was a specific stipulation that the recruitment process shall be taken place in the light of Memo No. 16144 dated 28.11.2012 issued by the General Administration Department and there shall be no modification/change in the reservation category during the recruitment process. Clause 8 thereof further made it clear that all the certificates pertaining to eligibility of a candidate, including the certificate for claiming reservation shall be valid only, the particulars of which was duly mentioned in the Online application form. However, all the certificate must have been issued prior to the cut off date on 03.08.2023.
5. In tune with the terms of the advertisement, the petitioners, who were the candidates falling under the category of Scheduled Caste submitted their respective castes certificates along with necessary documents. The petitioners along with others upon receipt of the admit-card participated in the examination and declared successful, whereupon called for the document verification. List of selected candidates under different streams along with respective cut off marks were issued and they were called for document verification. In the meanwhile, the Commission vide letter no. 3178 dated 15.10.2024 directed the candidates to submit their valid caste certificate, failing which the claim of reserved category may be changed or considered appropriately. It is respectfully submitted that petitioner no.1 and 2 have filed their Online applications under Scheduled Caste category and both have claimed their respective caste category on the basis of their caste as "TantiTantwa". However, while the recruitment process was going on in the meanwhile the Department of General Administration, Government of Bihar in compliance with the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar Vichar Manch Bihar, Patna Vs. The State of Bihar & Ors. (Civil Appeal No. 18802 of 2017) has issued a Gazette Notification No. 764 dated 12.08.2024.
6. In the light of the aforesaid Gazette Notification, the Labour Resources Department vide its Letter No. 2441 dated 04.09.2024 and further vide letter no. 2594 dated 19.09.2024 has directed the Commission to rectify the merit list in view of the mandate of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. The Commission requested the petitioners and other candidates to submit on record, their respective caste certificates/Non-creamy layer certificates for grant of reservation benefit in terms with the judgment rendered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP No.18802 of 2017 and clarified the position. In the light of the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and the Gazette Notification as well as consequential letters, the caste of all these petitioners, which was "Tanti-Tantwa" prior to 2015, but later on their reservation category was declared to be Extremely Backward Class (EBC) from Scheduled Caste (SC), the candidatures of the petitioners were considered, however, they could not get the cut off marks under EBC category and thus were not selected. The entire action and impugned resolution are put to challenge by the petitioners.
The rest of the document can be viewed at https://patnahighcourt.gov.in/viewjudgment/MTUjMTc4OTIjMjAyNCMxI04=-U7RxJaEmK--ak1--0=
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