AARAV JAIN versus THE BIHAR PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION & ORS.

Citation: [2022] 4 S.C.R. 743 · Decided: 23-05-2022 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: S. ABDUL NAZEER · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

Judgment (excerpt)

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AARAV JAIN
v.
THE BIHAR PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION & ORS.
(Civil Appeal No. 4242 of 2022)
MAY 23, 2022
[S. ABDUL NAZEER AND VIKRAM NATH, JJ.]
Service Law – 30th Bihar Judicial Service Examination –
Recruitment of Judicial Officers – Rejection of Candidature – Non-
production of original certificates at the time of interview – Bihar
Public Service Examination Commission (BPSC) issued an
advertisement for conducting examination for 349 posts of Civil
Judge (Junior Division) – After conducting the examination,
Commission issued appointment letter to the successful candidates
in order of merits – Candidature of eight candidates (Appellants)
was cancelled by Commission for want of non-production of original
certificates – Appellants have scored higher marks from the last
selected candidates in their respective categories – Appellants
approached the High Court by way of different petitions, which
were dismissed – On appeal, held: It is evident that self-attested
copies of the certificates required were submitted by the appellants
at the time of their interview and even the originals were later on
submitted within a few days – It is not the case of the respondent
that any of these certificates referred to were found incorrect – It is
only this technical ground of not producing the original certificate
at the time of the interview that the candidature of these appellants
was rejected – The rejection of the candidates was improper,
unjustified and not warranted.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 4242
of 2022.
From the Judgment and Order dated 04.05.2021 of the High Court
of Patna in Writ Petition (Civil) C.W.J.C. No. 24282 of 2019.
With
Civil Appeal Nos. 4243, 4244, 4246, 4245 and 4247 of 2022.
R. Balasubramanian, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Mrs. Anjana
Prakash, Vijay Hansaria, Sr. Advs., Sachin Sharma, Rahul Gaur, Satyavrat
[2022] 4 S.C.R. 743
743
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744
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2022] 4 S.C.R.
Sharma, Anil Kumar Gulati, Ms. Pooja Dhar, Ms. Ishita Chowdhury,
Varun Singh, Nitin Saluja, Abhijeet Kumar Pandey, Raman Kr. Singh,
Tungesh, Saket Singh, Ms. Sangeeta Singh, Ms. Somyashree,
Mrs. Niranjana Singh, Navin Prakash, Samir Ali Khan, M/s. Parekh &
Co., Gaurav Agrawal, C. George Thomas, Anuj Prakash, Kumar Mihir,
Shantanu Sagar, Shashank Shekhar, Anil Kumar, Gunjesh Ranjan,  Advs.
for the appearing parties.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
VIKRAM NATH, J.
1. Leave granted in all the Special Leave Petitions.
2. For recruitment of 349 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Division),
the Bihar Public Service Commission issued an Advertisement No. 6 of
2018, dated 23.8.2018 for conducting 30th Bihar Judicial Services
Examination. The break-up of the 349 posts is as follows:
i.  General/unreserved (01) – 175 posts
ii. SC (02) – 56 posts
iii. SC (03) – 03 posts
iv. EBC (04) – 73 Posts
v. Backward Class (05) – 42 Posts
3. After conducting the Screening Test, Written Test and Interview,
the Commission vide letter dated 02.12.2019 recommended names of
349 candidates in order of merit. According to the figures available, out
of the 349 recommended candidates, four candidates did not turn up for
counselling. As such appointment letters were issued on different dates
from January, 2020 to December, 2020 to 345 candidates. Further out of
these 345 candidates, three candidates did not turn up for joining. As
such the candidature of seven candidates was cancelled by the State
Government vide orders issued on different dates. The Appellants had
admittedly secured higher marks than the last selected candidates in
their respective categories but the Commission had cancelled their
candidature for want of fulfilment of the conditions required as per the
interview call letter.
4. One of the conditions required was to submit the originals of
certificates detailed therein which included educational certificates, Caste
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certificates if claiming any benefit of reservation, No Objection
Certificates of previous employer, Character Certificate of the last
attended College/University and other certificates of residence etc. at
the time of interview. Some of the candidates could not produce the
original Certificates as required, as a result of which their candidatures
were cancelled by the Commission vide their meeting dated 27.11.2019.
In its 102nd meeting of the Commission organised on 27.11.2019, the
eligibility of the candidates on the basis of their educational certificates,
mark sheets, docum

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