RANCHI: In yet another shocker to Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC), the double bench of Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday upheld the decision of a single bench while rejecting the final result of the 6th civil services examination (CSE) conducted earlier by the recruitment body.
As per the court order, the JPSC will now have to publish fresh revised results which might drop some of the successful candidates already posted in different locations in Jharkhand.
Notably, a total of 326 candidates were declared successful in the 6th JPSC Civil Services Examination.
“The division bench of Jharkhand High Court passed the order on Wednesday, which was kept reserved since October 2021, restoring the decision of single bench in which the merit list published by the JPSC had been quashed asking it to publish a fresh revised merit list strictly in accordance with clause 13 without adding the marks of qualifying paper English and Hindi,” said writ petitioner’s advocate Amritansh Vats.
The single bench had also directed the JPSC to identify the erring officials responsible for it so that such anomalies or diversion from the advertisement does not take place again, he added.
Vats further added that the successful candidates, who are currently posted in different locations in Jharkhand, had filed an appeal in the double bench in which the hearing was completed in October 2021 and finally in the order was passed on Wednesday dismissing the appeal filed by them.
“The appeal in the double bench was filed in July, immediately after the decision of single bench came in June 2020, following which, the hearing was started in February, and the final hearing took place till October last year,” said the petitioner’s advocate. Finally, after keeping the order reserved for nearly five months, it was passed on Wednesday, he added.
According to advocate, in the final merit list published by JPSC, it was found that aggregated 40 per cent marks of some of the students were considered for publishing the result given the fact that many of them have failed in one or another main paper of the main examination, which was not accordance of the advertisement published by JPSC. Secondly, it was also found that marks of the two qualifying papers -- Hindi and English were also added in the total mark which is wrong, he said.
“When the result was examined closely, it was found that nearly 150 students have been declared qualified who actually have failed in a particular main paper. It was possibly done to make such candidates qualify in the main examination and disqualify others who have actually qualified it,” claimed Vats.
“We had approached the Jharkhand High Court and filed a writ petition which was also allowed by it saying that minimum passing marks in any of the subjects was essentially required as per the advertisement published in the newspapers and marks of the two qualifying papers could not be added in the merit,” said the advocate. Considering our submission, the single bench had rejected the merit list published by JPSC directing the JPSC to publish a fresh revised merit list, he added.
After the appeal was filed in the double bench, the status quo was imposed since the matter was pending in the court. The advocate said that since the matter has been disposed off, now the JPSC will have to comply with the order passed by Jharkhand High Court and publish a fresh revised result.
Vats called it a historic judgment as arguments from both sides continued for seven consecutive days on a single bench in February 2021. This is for the first time that such a decision has been passed by Jharkhand High Court, he said.
More than 120 successful candidates are likely to be ousted from their services and a similar number of new candidates might get included in the merit list. Student associations have also hailed the decision of the Jharkhand High Court calling it a historical judgment and demanded strict action against the erring officials who were involved in it.