Dismissed¶¶63

Rajiv Kumar v. The State of Bihar

Patna HC7 Apr 2025L.P.A/53/2025

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Sub-Inspector recruitment Bihar Staff Selection Commission; Advertisement No.704 of 2004 (1510 posts, 299 vacant); Advertisement No.511 of 2011 (93 recommended); failure in written examination; no right to be considered for appointment; Supreme Court contempt jurisdiction not invokable; fresh advertisement and physical test directions; Letters Patent Appeal dismissed; condonation of 11 days' delay (I.A. No.1 of 2025); Santosh Kumar & Ors. vs. The State of Bihar & Ors., CWJC No.6173 of 2019; CWJC No.3302 of 2020; judgment dated 02.12.2024; Patna High Court; decision date 07-04-2025.

What did the court decide?

The delay of 11 days in preferring the appeal is condoned and I.A. No. 1 of 2025 stands allowed. ¶¶27

Rajiv Kumar Vs The State of Bihar — Patna HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Dismissed

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Issue for consideration

Whether the appellants/writ petitioners, who failed the written examination in the Sub-Inspector recruitment process initiated by Advertisement No.704 of 2004, had any right to be considered for appointment as Sub-Inspectors, and whether the learned Single Judge's judgment dated 02.12.2024 called for interference.

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Court's answer

The Division Bench has no reasons to interfere with the learned Single Judge's judgment dated 02.12.2024; the recruitment process having started in 2004, the writ petition was correctly dismissed.

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Ratio / Principle

The delay of 11 days in preferring the appeal is condoned and I.A. No. 1 of 2025 stands allowed.

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Key takeaways

Since the appellants failed in the written test, no right accrued to them to be considered for appointment to the post of Sub-Inspector, even though other applicants were re-subjected to physical test under the Supreme Court's directions.ratio¶¶55

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Patna High Court (Ashutosh Kumar, Acting Chief Justice, and Partha Sarthy, J.) dismissed Letters Patent Appeal No.53 of 2025, upholding the learned Single Judge's judgment dated 02.12.2024 in CWJC No.3302 of 2020. The appellants had applied under Advertisement No.704 of 2004 for 1510 Sub-Inspector posts (299 left vacant); in subsequent rounds pursuant to Supreme Court directions (Advertisement No.511 of 2011, in which 93 persons were recommended) and contempt proceedings, the appellants were excluded because they had not passed the written examination. Held: in the event of the appellants having failed in the written test, no right accrued to them to be considered for appointment to the post of Sub-Inspector; the process of recruitment having started in 2004, there were no reasons to interfere with the Single Judge's judgment. Delay of 11 days in filing the appeal condoned (I.A. No.1 of 2025 allowed). The Court noted that in similar circumstances a learned Single Judge had rejected similar claims in a batch of writ petitions led by CWJC No.6173 of 2019 (Santosh Kumar & Ors. vs. The State of Bihar & Ors.), against which the appeal and the SLP had also been dismissed.

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA

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Letters Patent Appeal No.53 of 2025

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Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.3302 of 2020

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Rajiv Kumar S/o Late- Shivpukar Singh, R/o Mohalla Lakhibagh (Jayamati Bhawan), near Bulla Shahid, P.O. Buniyadganj, District - Gaya.

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Prem Shankar, S/o Dinesh Sharma, R/o village - Dundichak, P.O. Sirh, P.S. Atri, District - Gaya.

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Hari Shankar Singh, S/o Ranjeet Singh @ Ranjit Singh, R/o Village and P.O. Gaurichak, District - Patna.

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... ... Appellant/s

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Versus

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The State of Bihar through the Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Government of Bihar, Patna.

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The Director General of Police, Government of Bihar, Government of Bihar, Patel Bhavan, Bailey Road, Patna.

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The Chairman, Bihar Staff Selection Commission, P.O. Veterinary Collage, Bailey Road, Patna, Patna - 800014 (Bihar).

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The Secretary, Bihar Staff Selection Commission, P.O. Veterinary Collage, Bailey Road, Patna, Patna - 800014 (Bihar).

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Md. Nasim, S/o Md. Ahu Zafar Ansari, R/o Village - Goraul, P.S. C roraul, District - Vaishali, Bihar.

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Umesh Kumar Roy, S/o Ram Briksh Roy, R/o vill- Tarwan Mangarpal, viaSonepur, P.S. Dariyapur, District - Saran, Bihar.

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Ravi Prakash S/o Birendra Kumar Singh, R/o Near Chandmari, Motihari, District - East Champaran, Bihar.

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... ... Respondent/s

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====================================================== Appearance : For the Appellant/s : Mr. R.K.Sharma, Advocate Mr. Dinkar Kumar, Advocate For the BSSC : Mr. Satyabir Bharti, Sr. Advocate Ms. Kanupriya, Advocate Mr. Abhishek Anand, Advocate For the State : Mr. Sanjay Kumar Ghosarvey, AC to AAG- 3 ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE THE ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE and HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE PARTHA SARTHY ORAL JUDGMENT (Per: HONOURABLE THE ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE)

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Date : 07-04-2025

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Patna High Court L.P.A No.53 of 2025 dt.07-04-2025 2/5

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Re: I.A. No.1 of 2025

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The learned Advocate for the appellant/ applicant

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presses I.A. No. 1 of 2025 for condoning the delay of 11

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days in preferring this appeal.

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For the reasons stated in the application, the

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delay of 11 days in preferring this appeal is condoned.

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I.A. No. 1 of 2025 stands allowed.

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Re: L.P.A. No. 53 of 2025

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Heard Mr. R.K. Sharma, the learned Advocate

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for the appellants, Mr. Satyabir Bharti, the learned Senior Advocate for the Bihar Staff Selection Commission and Mr. Sanjay Kumar Ghosarvey, the learned Advocate appearing for the State.

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By Advertisement No.704 of 2004, applications

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were invited for filling up the post of 1510 Sub-Inspectors.

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The recruitment process was taken to a logical conclusion but 299 posts remained vacant. Some of the unsuccessful candidates had approached the Supreme Court and in one

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such petition before the Supreme Court, a direction was

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Patna High Court L.P.A No.53 of 2025 dt.07-04-2025 3/5

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issued that a fresh advertisement be issued inviting applications from the applicants of the advertisement of 2004, who would be subjected to physical test and would be taken in service if they qualify otherwise.

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Pursuant to such an order, another

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advertisement No. 511 of 2011 was taken out in which only 93 persons were recommended.

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Some seats still remained vacant. Thereafter,

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some of the unsuccessful candidates in the second round went before the Supreme Court in contempt jurisdiction, wherein it was decided that their candidature will be considered afresh and they will be subjected to physical test and would be taken into the service.

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The appellants/writ petitioners were excluded from consideration for the reason that they have not passed

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the written examination. They had also approached the Supreme Court in the contempt jurisdiction when it was found that such jurisdiction of the Supreme Court could not be invoked in view of the fact that the appellants/writ

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Patna High Court L.P.A No.53 of 2025 dt.07-04-2025 4/5

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petitioners were ousted from consideration only for the

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reason that they had not passed the written examination.

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However, the Supreme Court permitted the

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appellants/ writ petitioners to approach the appropriate forum for the needful.

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This strengthened the appellants/writ

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petitioners to come up before this Court vide CWJC No.3302 of 2020 seeking a direction to the Staff Selection Commission of the State of Bihar to appoint them as SubInspectors.

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The learned Single Judge vide his judgment dated 02.12.2024, after going through the entire gamut of facts, found that the writ petitioners/appellants could not have been appointed for the reason that they had failed in the written test and the process of recruitment had started in the year 2004.

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