TINKU KUMAR PANDEY Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) At the request of the learned counsel for the petitioners, the defects as pointed out by the office are ignored.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) published advertisement on its official website for conducting Jharkhand Diploma Level Combined Competitive Examination-2021 being Advertisement No. 06/2021 for making appointment to the posts of Junior Engineer (Electrical), Junior Engineer (Civil) and Junior Engineer (Mechanical) in Urban Development and Housing Department, Government of Jharkhand, Ranchi and the cut-off date for calculating the minimum and maximum age limit was fixed as 1/8/2021. Thereafter, amended Advertisement No. 06/2021 was published on 3/2/2022 wherein apart from the previous vacancies, the vacancies for the posts of Junior Engineer vacant in other departments such as Drinking water and Sanitation Department, Water Resources Department, Road Construction Department, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Co-operative Department of Government of Jharkhand were also included providing the cut-off date as 1/8/2021 for calculating the minimum and maximum age limit regarding vacancies of earlier department i.e., Urban Development and Housing, however, the said cut-off date regarding vacancies of newly added departments was fixed as 1/8/2022. Earlier, the JSSC had conducted the examination in the year 2014 for the same post and at that time, the cut-off date for calculating the minimum and maximum age limit was fixed as 1/8/2014 and thereafter, no competitive examination for filling up the vacant posts of Junior Engineer was ever conducted for all these 7 years. It is further submitted that before 2014, the advertisement for the same post was published in the year 2012 and only after a gap of 2 years, the next advertisement was published by the respondent-JSSC. However, for all these 7 years, the respondent- State/JSSC has not taken any examination or published any advertisement for filling up the post of junior engineer, rather they kept appointing the junior engineers only on contractual basis though permanent vacancies of sanctioned post existed since 2015. As per calendar available on the website of JSSC, it was shown that examination would be conducted in April 2019, however, the same was not conducted. Due to not taking regular examination for filling the vacant posts of Junior Engineer, the petitioners have become age barred with respect to the cut off date of upper age limit which has been fixed as 1/8/2022 in the amended advertisement and for the said reason, the petitioners being ineligible are unable to fill up forms of the said examination. Moreover, the respondent-State also could not conduct any examination since March 2020 due to spread of COVID-19 pandemic and hence, they lost 2 precious years of their career. The aforesaid situation was not in control of anyone as the same was an act of God, for which the upper age limit of the petitioners should have been considered. The respondent-State in other competitive examination i.e., Civil Services Combined Competitive Examination, 2021, has fixed the upper age limit from the date when the vacancies were existing i.e., 1/8/2016, as no civil services examination was conducted in the State of Jharkhand from 2016 till 2021. After publication of Advertisement No. 06/2021, the petitioners have immediately represented the respondent authorities vide letter dtd. 9/2/2022 requesting inter alia to give relaxation in cut off date of upper age limit which has been fixed as 1/8/2022 so that suitable candidates who were preparing for this examination since long may not be left out. However, the respondents have not responded to the same. They have also failed to consider that not holding regular examinations for filling up the vacant post of Junior Engineers for a long period itself violates the fundamental rights of the petitioners. Since huge backlog and large number of vacancies have been accumulated since 2014, the cases of those candidates who were waiting for the said examination since long should be considered.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioners, in support of his argument puts reliance on the judgment rendered by the learned Division Bench of this Court in the case of "Sanjiv Kumar Sahay and Ors. Vs. State of Jharkhand and Ors." reported in 2008 (2) JLJR 543, granting relaxation of age by modifying the cut-off date to calculate the maximum age of 35 years from 31/1/2008 to 31/1/2003.