The Jharkhand High Court has directed the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) to reconsider the candidature of a woman whose selection for the State Civil Services was rejected because the caste certificate uploaded by her had been issued on the basis of her husband's name.

A Single Judge Bench of Justice Deepak Roshan held that the candidate could not be made to suffer for an error committed by the State authority while issuing the certificate, particularly when she subsequently produced a certificate based on her father's name showing the same caste and permanent address.

The petitioner had applied under the Scheduled Caste category pursuant to JPSC's advertisement for the 7th-10th Jharkhand Combined Civil Services Examination, 2021. She cleared the preliminary and mains examinations and was called for document verification and interview. At the time of document verification on May 9, 2022, she produced a caste certificate dated March 27, 2019, which had been issued on the basis of her husband. JPSC asked her to produce a certificate based on her father instead. She obtained and submitted such a certificate the following day.

When the results were declared, however, her name was not included. She had secured 590 marks, while the cut-off for the SC category was 583. JPSC recorded that her candidature had not been considered because she had obtained the benefit of the SC category in the preliminary examination while uploading a caste certificate issued on the basis of her husband.

The High Court noted that both caste certificates carried the same residential address and showed that the petitioner belonged to the same caste before and after her marriage. It was therefore not a case where she was seeking reservation on the strength of her husband's caste.

JPSC relied on a State Government letter dated February 25, 2019, which directed authorities to issue caste certificates on the basis of the father. The Court, however, noted that the petitioner had applied for her certificate on January 4, 2019, before the letter was issued. Despite the subsequent direction, the Sub-Divisional Officer, Koderma issued the certificate on March 27 on the basis of her husband. The Court held that this was an error attributable to the issuing authority and not to the petitioner.

It further held that the February 25 letter did not have the force of law since it had neither been notified in the Gazette nor published as a government circular or resolution. A caste certificate issued by the competent authority after due verification would not become void merely because it was issued contrary to the instructions contained in such a letter. The Court observed:

“However, in the present case in hand, there is no allegation alleged with regards to format or submission of valid caste certificate after cut-off date, rather the petitioner has furnished the caste certificate in proper prescribed format before the cut-off date, but due to error on the part of the State, the same is issued on the basis of name of her husband instead of her father, which was later on clarified by showing the caste certificate issued in name of father having same caste and same place of resident...”

The Court added that there was no dispute about the petitioner having submitted a caste certificate in the prescribed format within the cut-off date. The only issue was that the certificate referred to her husband instead of her father, and any doubt about whether she was claiming reservation on the basis of her husband stood answered by the subsequent certificate.

Accordingly, the High Court directed JPSC to consider her candidature and make the necessary recommendation to the State Government within eight weeks. The State was directed to issue her appointment letter within a further four weeks upon receiving the recommendation.

Case Title: Chanchala Kumari v. State of Jharkhand & Ors.

Case Number: W.P.(S) No. 493 of 2023

Appearance: Mr. Indrajit Sinha, Mr. Amritansh Vats, Mr. Amartya Choubey and Mr. Arpan M. Ekka for the Petitioner; Mr. Rahul Saboo, GP-II and Mr. Kunal Chandra Suman, AC to GP-II for the State; Mr. Sanjoy Piprawall and Mr. Prince Kumar for JPSC.

Click Here To Read/Download Order