Manoj Kumar vs The State Of Jharkhand Through Its ...
2022 Latest Caselaw 415 Jhar

                                1

    IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
               W.P.(C) No. 468 of 2022

Manoj Kumar                                   ...     ...      Petitioner
                               Versus
The State of Jharkhand through its Principal Secretary, Department of
Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha, Government of
Jharkhand, Ranchi & Anr.                   ...     ...     Respondents
                              With
                  W.P.(S) No. 326 of 2022
Vivek Kumar Khanna & Ors.                  ...     ...     Petitioners
                               Versus
The State of Jharkhand & Ors.              ...     ...     Respondents
                              With
                  W.P.(S) No. 344 of 2022
Uttam Kumar & Ors.                         ...     ...     Petitioners
                               Versus
The State of Jharkhand through its Chief Secretary, Ranchi & Ors.
                                           ...     ...     Respondents
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH SHANKAR
                      -----

For the Petitioner : Mr. Ajit Kumar, Sr. Advocate [In W.P.(S) No. 344 of 2022] Mr. Saurabh Shekhar, Advocate [In W.P.(S) No. 326 of 2022] Mr. Vijay Kant Dubey, Advocate [In W.P.(C) No. 468 of 2022] For the Respondent-State : Mr. Rajiv Ranjan, A.G. For the Respondent-JSSC : Mr. Sanjay Piprawall, Advocate

-----

Order No. 03 Dated: 11.02.2022

The writ petitions are taken up today through Video conferencing.

W.P.(S) No. 326 of 2022 and W.P.(S) No. 344 of 2022 have been listed before this Court in terms with order of Hon'ble the Chief Justice passed on the administrative side in pursuance of order dated 10.02.2022 passed by a co-ordinate Bench of this Court in the said cases.

Since similar issue is involved in all the three writ petitions, these are being taken up together with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties.

The petitioners have primarily prayed for quashing the cut-off date for counting the upper age limit fixed for the post of Assistant Section Officer, Junior Secretariat Assistant, Block Supply

Officer and Planning Assistant in Advertisement No. 05/2021 as 01.08.2021 with a further direction to the respondents to fix the cut-off date of upper age for the said posts as 01.08.2010 which was fixed in Advertisement No. 03/2019.

Mr. Ajit Kumar, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners, submits that the petitioners namely, Vivek Kumar Khanna and Bipul Kumar Sinha of W.P.(S) No. 326 of 2022 and Uttam Kumar and Gaya Ram Mahatha of W.P.(S) No. 344 of 2022 along with two others namely, Binay Kumar and Ajay Kumar Neeraj, had earlier filed a writ petition being W.P.(S) No. 663 of 2016 seeking direction upon the respondents to fix the cut-off date of the upper age limit as 01.08.2010 for recruitment on different Class-III posts by putting challenge to the upper age limit fixed as 01.08.2015 in Advertisement No. 14/2015 issued by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) with respect to Joint Graduate Level Competitive Examination. The said writ petition was disposed of by this Court vide order/judgment dated 16.03.2016, the relevant part of which reads as under:

10. It is admitted position that no examination after the creation of the State of Jharkhand was held for filling up the posts of Block Supply Officer, Block Welfare Officer and Circle Inspector and so far as the post of Cooperative Extension Officer is concerned, the last advertisement which was issued was in the year 2006. In absence of any regular examination for the said posts, petitioners did not have any opportunity to appear in the examination and in the meantime, they have crossed the age of 35 years. Such circumstance should not make the petitioners disqualified for appearing in the examination.

11. Thus, in view of the ratio which has been laid down by the Hon'ble Division Bench in the case of "Bhola Nath Rajak & Ors. Vs. State of Jharkhand & Ors." (supra) and taking into consideration the entire facts and circumstances of the case, the cut-off date for maximum age of 35 years in the impugned advertisement no. 14/2015 is re-fixed from 01.08.2015 to 01.08.2010.

12. Since the last date for submission of application as per the advertisement no. 14/2015 was 15.03.2016, the respondents authorities are directed to issue a corrigendum to the original advertisement by modifying the

cut-off date of the upper age limit from 01.08.2015 to 01.08.2010 and extend the period of submission of the application forms to 15 days from the date of issuance of the corrigendum. The other terms and conditions of advertisement no. 14/2015 shall remain undisturbed. The relaxation in the cut-off date shall be applicable to all similar situated persons as that of the petitioners who also possess other requisite criteria in terms of advertisement no. 14/2015.

13. This writ application is allowed and disposed of with the aforesaid observations and guidelines.

Thereafter, the Government of Jharkhand issued resolution as contained in memo no. 6843 dated 29.08.2019 fixing the cut-off date of upper age limit of the candidates applying for appointment to the said posts as 01.08.2010 except for the post of Assistant Section Officer, the cut-off date of upper age limit of which was fixed as 01.08.2015. Accordingly, Corrigendum with respect to cut-off date of 01.08.2010 was published by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission in amended advertisement (Advertisement No. 14/2015). It would thus be evident that the State Government as well as the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission complied the order dated 16.03.2016 passed by this Court in W.P.(S) No. 663 of 2016. However, the selection process pursuant to the said advertisement was cancelled on 04.02.2017. Thereafter, fresh advertisement vide Advertisement No. 03/2019 dated 13.09.2019 was issued by the JSSC for filling up different Class-III posts fixing the date of upper age limit as 01.08.2010 except for the post of Assistant Section Officer, the cut-off date of upper age limit of which was fixed as 01.08.2015.

Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners further submits that all the petitioners applied in pursuance of Advertisement No. 03/2019 for different posts on the basis of cut-off date of upper age limit as 01.08.2010, however, the said advertisement was cancelled by the JSSC vide notice dated 01.11.2021. Thereafter, Advertisement No. 05/2021 has been issued by the JSSC to hold "Jharkhand General Graduate Level Combined Competitive Examination, 2021" for filling up the posts of Assistant Section Officer, Junior Secretariat Assistant, Block Supply Officer and Planning Assistant. In the said

advertisement, the JSSC without any justification has fixed the cut-off date of upper age limit as 01.08.2021. By such arbitrary action of the JSSC, the petitioners who had earlier applied for appointment on different Class-III posts have now become ineligible being age-barred. The petitioners are mainly aspiring to apply for the post of Block Supply Officer in pursuance of Advertisement No. 05/2021, however, due to fixing of cut-off date of upper age limit of the candidates as 01.08.2021 particularly for those aspiring to apply for the said post is not only illegal, but also in the teeth of the order/judgment dated 16.03.2016 passed by this Court in W.P.(S) No. 663 of 2016 as also the resolution of the Government of Jharkhand as contained in memo no. 6843 dated 29.08.2019.

Mr. Rajiv Ranjan, learned Advocate General appearing for the State respondents as well as Mr. Sanjay Piprawall, learned counsel for the respondent-JSSC, jointly submit that out of the posts advertised in Advertisement No. 03/2019, only the post of Block Supply Officer has been advertised in the present advertisement i.e., Advertisement No. 05/2021 and thus, the prayer of the petitioners for fixing the cut-off date as 01.08.2010 should be confined only to the said post. They further pray for and are allowed four weeks' time to seek instruction and file respective counter affidavits.

In view of the said prayer, put up these cases under appropriate heading on 14.03.2022.

It appears that the last date for submission of examination form pursuant to Advertisement No. 05/2021 has been fixed as 14.02.2022 and the counter affidavits with the stand of the respondents are yet to come.

For the reasons as aforesaid, if the petitioners are not allowed to fill up the examination forms, they will suffer irreparable loss and injury and as such, they are entitled for interim protection of this Court.

Hence, the respondents shall allow the petitioners and all such candidates to fill up the forms who had applied for the post of Block Supply Officer in pursuance of Advertisement No. 03/2019,

which shall be subject to the final outcome of the present writ petition.

Accordingly, the last date of submission of the examination forms i.e., 14.02.2022 is extended till 21.02.2022 for such candidates.

The Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission is directed to issue press communiqué in at least four newspapers of wide circulation with respect to the present interim arrangement made by this Court.

(Rajesh Shankar, J.) Manish