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TMI Blog2022 (8) TMI 1447X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... proviso which gives a different indication. This Court in N. SURESH NATHAN VERSUS U.O.I. [ 1991 (11) TMI 257 - SUPREME COURT ] while examining the recruitment rules for Assistant Engineers in the Public Works Department and taking into consideration the procedure which has been followed by the department for sufficiently long time observed that the construction of the scheme of rules which is in consonance with long standing practice prevailing in the concerned department is untenable to require upsetting it and if the past practice is based on one of the possible constructions which can be made of the rules upsetting the same could not be appropriate. In the instant case, the view which has been adopted by the Commission and that has been considered and held by the High Court in the impugned judgment may be better circumscribed but both are equally possible views and either of the one could not be ruled out or outrightly negated. In the given situation, when one possible view has been acted upon by the Commission and pursuant to which the recommendations were made and after approval of the State Government, candidates have been appointed and are working for almost 2 years by this ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nation conducted by the Commission pursuant to Advertisement no. 6/2013 dated 7th July, 2013, there was a specific note in the advertisement that preliminary examination had two papers of 100 marks each and there shall be subject papers in the main examination and that the marks obtained in General Hindi will not be added in the marks obtained in the written examination and personality test, but the candidates who failed to secure 30 marks in compulsory General Hindi, will not be considered eligible for the written examination and accordingly Paper-I (General Hindi) was considered to be a qualifying test and before the 6th Combined Civil Services Examination, 2016 came to be notified, there was a series of meetings held by the Expert Committee for revision of the examination pattern for Combined Civil Services Examination chaired by Mr. V.S. Dubey, IAS (Retd.) and the Expert Committee, after examining the Pattern of Examination, made the recommendations1. 6. The report of the Dubey Committee was considered by the Commission in the first instance and recommended the same to Respondent No.1 for acceptance, inter alia, with the stipulations2. 7. Respondent No. 1 approved the methodo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... en to be a final conclusion on the issue, the learned Single Judge of the High Court revisited the scheme of the selection process of preliminary examination decided the controversy in the case of Joy Guria Vs. State of Jharkhand and others [W.P.(S) No. 4188 of 2018] under its judgment dated 20th December, 2018 holding that in the preliminary examination, the candidate has to obtain qualifying marks in both the papers and after the list of successful candidates was published, the main written examination was conducted from 28th January, 2019 to 1st February, 2019 and the result of the main examination was declared on 15th February, 2020 and all the successful candidates in the written examination who fell in the zone of consideration were called for viva voce and the result of the candidates who qualified and successfully cleared all the stages, the final merit list was published of the selected candidates by the Commission on 21st April, 2020 and after the recommendations were approved by the Government of Jharkhand, the successful candidates of the 6th Combined Civil Services Examination, 2016 against 326 posts were appointed on various dates from June, 2020 to July, 2020 and so ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on) were not to be added in total marks while preparing merit list for declaration of the candidature of one or the other candidate. Issue no. (ii) Whether the merit list prepared by the JPSC based upon the 'aggregate qualifying marks' of all subjects or 'minimum qualifying marks' in each of the subjects, is considered to be correct? Issue no. (iii) Whether the stand which has been taken by the JPSC as also the State before the Court of law based upon which the order has been passed in Joy Guria (supra) or the contrary view taken while preparing the merit list of the successful candidate in 6th Combined Civil Service Competitive Examination conducted by JPSC is considered to be correct? Issue nos. (ii) and (iii) are answered by the High Court as under: (ii) 'Minimum qualifying marks' in each subject (Main Examination) is correct interpretation; and (iii) the stand which has been taken by the JPSC as also the State before the Court of law based upon which the order has been passed in Joy Guria (supra) is correct approach. 16. The Division Bench of the High Court held that the marks obtained in Paper I of Written Examination were not to be added in the total marks a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ry for the candidates to appear in all the subjects/papers of the main examination. Although the remarks column in Paper-I indicates that it is a qualifying paper in which minimum 30 marks are mandatory and in the remaining subject papers, one has to secure 40% marks but there is no indication whether it has to be in individual paper or the total marks obtained in the written examination for adjudging the suitability for appointment. 20. Thus, in the given circumstances, what is being construed by the Commission in preparing the merit list of the candidates based on the marks secured by the candidate out of 1050 marks for determining merit in the written examination to be called for interview is a reasonable interpretation which ordinarily was not open for the High Court to interfere with within the limited scope of judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution. 21. Learned counsel further submits that the interpretation which has been afforded by the High Court after deliberation may also be one of the plausible interpretations in reference to clause 12 and 13 of the advertisement but what is being interpreted by the Commission while preparing the merit list of the writt ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r of merit provided the Commission would have published the list of selected candidates in conformity with clause 12 and 13 of the advertisement read with Rule 16 of the Rules 1951. 24. Learned counsel further submits that there is no delay on the part of the respondents in approaching the Court for redressal of their grievances and at least latches, in no manner, be attributed to them. Once their right has been safeguarded by the interim order of which a reference has been made, at least their right of fair consideration in revising the merit list of the written examination in terms of the order of the Division Bench may not be interfered with by this Court. 25. Learned counsel further submits that so far as Rule 16 of the scheme of the Rules, 1951 is concerned, if the punctuation mark is noticed after Rule 16(a), the Legislature in its wisdom has put a little full stop(.) and after clause (b), there is colon(:), and thereafter, the proviso has been added which clearly indicates that proviso is only related to clause (b) to Rule 16 and this being the only irresistible interpretation of the scheme of Rule 16 of Rules, 1951 which has been confirmed by the High Court after a detail ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... th Combined Civil Services Examination was notified by the Commission on 6th October, 2016 for filling up of 326 posts of different services under the State of Jharkhand and recruitment is to be made in terms of the Bihar Civil Service (Executive Branch) and Rules, 1951 which were adopted by the State of Jharkhand by notification dated 9th November 2002. 29. Before the 6th Combined Civil Services Examination came to be initiated, there was lot of discussion prior thereto, and after the acceptance of Dubey Committee's report with certain modifications by the Commission, finally came to be approved by the State Government vide its notification dated 25th September, 2013 and after going through the process of selection followed with the recommendations made by the Commission, appointments are made by order dated 29th July, 2020 and after completing field training, they have been posted to their respective places of posting. 30. It may be apposite to note that the State of Jharkhand has now notified the rules framed in exercise of power conferred under proviso to the Article 309 of the Constitution, namely, the Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Examination Rules, 2021(hereinafter bei ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dvertisement applies to each subject separately. 35. After a long battle, the Commission proceeded further and conducted the main examination during the period 28th January, 2019 and 1st February, 2019 and the result was finally declared on 15th February, 2020 and the recommendations were made by the Commission to the State Government including allocation of service on 29th June, 2020 and after approval of the recommendations made, the appointments were made by the State Government by Order dated 29th July 2020. At this stage, all the candidates had completed their full training and have been given their respective postings. 36. We have examined the submissions and the counter submissions made by learned counsel for the parties. 37. So far as Rule 16 of Rules, 1951 is concerned, it is true that if we go through the bare punctuation marks which have been highlighted by the counsel for the respondents, it certainly makes a distinction between clause (a) and clause (b) but for proper interpretation and to make the scheme of rules workable, sometimes punctuation marks may give a different impression and that cannot be taken in isolation for the interpretation of the scheme of rules. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ill comprise of 06 papers, total marks of which would be 1050 and it would be mandatory for the candidate to appear in all the subjects/papers of Main Examination. But for Paper-I, minimum 30 marks as qualifying marks has been prescribed and all the 6 papers are common and candidate has to appear in all the papers with the minimum qualifying marks for the respective category as indicated in clause 13 of the advertisement but whether it is the total marks obtained at the written examination or qualifying marks obtained in all the papers separately is not clear under the terms of advertisement. 41. It is true that it can be construed in both ways. The main examination is comprising of 6 papers, total marks would be 1050 and candidate has to appear in all the papers of the main examination. This could be one construction that qualifying marks in paper-I is 30% but in other subject papers, it may be 40% or as fixed for the respective category and whether it has to be aggregate or qualifying marks in each paper is indeed not clear and ambiguity is there in the conditions of advertisement, of which a detailed reference has been made. At this stage, we take assistance of Rule 16 of the s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e given situation, when one possible view has been acted upon by the Commission and pursuant to which the recommendations were made and after approval of the State Government, candidates have been appointed and are working for almost 2 years by this time, it will be unjust for this Court to now permit the Government to take a U-Turn in compliance of the impugned judgment, and nonsuit the candidates who are working for sufficiently long time. 45. Though it has been observed by the High Court that equity may not be claimed by the candidates but this Court cannot be oblivious of the fact that such of the candidates who are working for sufficiently two years by this time and have completed their period of probation were not at fault at any point of time but because the interpretation acted upon by the Commission was not acceptable to the High Court, they became a victim and that apart, we are also of the view that what is being observed by the High Court may only be confined to 6th Combined Civil Services Examination, 2016 for the reason that the State has now introduced the scheme of Rules, 2021 and fresh process has been initiated under 7th Combined Civil Services Examination 2016. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e two papers could be called: (i) the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) Paper I, and (ii) the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) Paper II. Questions to be asked in these two papers must be multiple choice, objective type, with no negative marking. Based on the result of the Preliminary Examination, the number of the candidates to be called for the written (Main) Examination should be around ten times of the vacancies to be filled. The cut off marks of the Main Examination should be decided accordingly by the Commission. (c) The Main Examination should be conducted for a maximum of 1000 marks, divided into six papers, compulsory for all candidates. Of the six papers, two should be drawn from the languages group and remaining four should be subject papers, as per details given below : (i) Paper I should be a composite paper of General Hindi and General English of Matric standard of 100 marks. This paper should have two separate segments, one on Hindi and the other one on English, each of equal weightage or 50 marks. (ii) Paper II should be a paper on Language & Literature of 100 marks of graduate standard. This paper will be set separately for each one of the following 15 la ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he Jharkhand Public Service Commission." 2 (1) 100 marks Language paper of mains be of qualifying nature only in which a candidate shall secure minimum 30 marks out of the Combined Hindi & English (10th standard paper of 100 marks). (2) The Revised Examination Pattern Syllabus shall be effective from the 6th Combined Civil Services Examination only so that candidates get clear 15 months to prepare as per the revised pattern and syllabus. The next 5th Combined Civil Services Examination will be on the existing (Mains) syllabus. (3) Before issuing the notification of revised syllabus Jharkhand Public Service Commission shall get the syllabus of 9 Regional Languages and Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Oriya, Bangla and English Language & Literature finalized by Expert Committee in its final meeting in which the Expert Committee Report was adopted. The Committee thus resolves this day i.e. 2nd April, 2013 to forward the V.S. Dubey Expert Committee Report to the Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand along with the Commission's above recommendations for acceptance as early as possible with a view to ensure that the Revised Pattern can be enforced from the 6th Combined Civil Services Examin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ian Constitution & Policy, Public Administration & Good Governance. 3 hours 200 Descriptive Type Paper V: Indian Economy, Globalization and Sustainable Development. 3 hours 200 Descriptive Type Paper VI: General Sciences, Environment & Technology Development. 3 hours 200 Descriptive Type These papers are common to all candidates. (c) xxxx xxxx xxxx "13. Minimum qualifying marks of Preliminary & Main Exam: Unreserved 40 percent Backward ClassI 34 percent Backward ClassII 36.5 percent Scheduled Castes/Tribes & female category 32 per cent The minimum qualifying marks determined as above will be applicable equally on all the written tests (Objective/Subjective) for various reserved categories for competitive exams of all the services/cadres. It would be mandatory for candidates of all the categories to obtain 30 marks in PaperI of Main Exam. (General Hindi & General English). Note: In the light of Resolution No.8315 dated 16.09.2015 of the Department of Personnel Administrative Reforms & Official Language, compulsion of obtaining minimum qualifying marks for interview in Civil Service competitive Test has been discontinued." 3 "ORDER Leave granted. The contro ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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