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2019 DIGILAW 1000 (JHR)

Pragya Sambhavi, D/o Prasanna Kumar v. State of Jharkhand

2019-05-08

ANIRUDDHA BOSE, ANUBHA RAWAT CHOUDHARY

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JUDGMENT : Aniruddha Bose, J. The writ petitioner has come before this Court with a complaint of arbitrary rejection of her application for the examination of Civil Judge (Junior Division) conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC). The reason for rejection is non-payment of examination fee. Such fees were to be paid through On-line transaction as it would appear from Clause 18 of the advertisement, a copy of which has been made Annexure 1. The payment for the examination fee was to be made by On-line payment by 26th December, 2018. 2. The writ petitioner's case is that she had initiated payment but due to technical glitch in bank On-line payment system, the application fee was not remitted to the JPSC. In this regard, a photocopy of the certificate from the bank has been annexed to the writ petition. This certificate is dated 7th March, 2019, which reads:- “This is to certify that Ms. Pragya Sambhavi is maintaining her savings account no.-35022108874 with our bank. She apparently initiated a transaction of Rs. 600/-dated 28/11/2018 herself. The amount has not been debited from her account. This certificate has been issued on the basis of written request of the customer. It is clarified that this information is furnished without any risk and responsibility on our part in any respect whatsoever.” 3. It is further complaint of the writ petitioner that on 24th December, 2018 the writ petitioner tried to check payment status but no link opened. No screen shot of the mobile phone or computer through which the payment was attempted has been annexed to the writ petition. There is no material on the basis of which such attempt could be clearly demonstrated or established. There is no material either to show that the petitioner made any query from the bank till 6th March, 2019. The advertisement itself specifies in Clause 19 (h) thereof that any information pertaining to examination fee would be obtained from payment helpline. There is nothing to show that any such query was made. Reliance was placed by Mr. Sinha on a judgment of the Hon'ble High Court of Kerala delivered on 18th January, 2019 in the case of The Secretary, Kerala Public Service Commission Vs. Radha S., in which, the Hon'ble Kerala High Court found that rejection of the applications of the candidates for lecturers on the ground that NET qualification was not uploaded was arbitrary. Sinha on a judgment of the Hon'ble High Court of Kerala delivered on 18th January, 2019 in the case of The Secretary, Kerala Public Service Commission Vs. Radha S., in which, the Hon'ble Kerala High Court found that rejection of the applications of the candidates for lecturers on the ground that NET qualification was not uploaded was arbitrary. But in that case the fault was with the authorities. So far as the present case is concerned, there might have been difficulties in making online payment but there is nothing to show that the petitioner had followed the process laid down in the advertisement form for verifying such On-line payment. There are certain laches on the part of writ petitioner herself in proper verification of payment process. 4. In such circumstances, we do not find any fault on the part of the JPSC in rejecting her application. The writ petition is dismissed. 5. As we have dismissed the writ petition itself, connected application (I.A. No.4190 of 2019) shall also stand dismissed.