Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC), responding to the Government decision and a subsequent resolution of the Personnel Department over the 6th Civil Services examination, has decided to seek legal opinion before going ahead.
The decision was taken on Thursday when the Commission comprising Chairperson K Vidyasagar and two existing members Fidelis Toppo and Satishwar Prasad Sinha reviewed the resolution that came before it from the Government.
“The Commission had received the copy of the Cabinet decision and the resolution issued thereafter in regard to revising the results of preliminary exam of the 6th Civil Services. The Commission has sent the matter to gather legal opinion and after that only any call would be taken,” said Jagjit Singh, Secretary of JPSC.
Former Advocate General AK Sinha is legal advisor of the Commission who would look into the matter in the light of earlier Supreme Court and High Court decisions given on reservation issues, advertisement published by the JPSC for the exam and the recent resolution of the Government. The Commission is expecting the opinion to arrive in a week’s time thereafter any proper decision would be taken based on that, said the Secretary.
The Cabinet, in its meeting at Netarhat taken place on February 7, had provided huge breather to the aspirants of the civil services examination, conducted about a year ago. As per the decision, minimum marks have been set for every category of the aspirants which is likely to open the gate for total about 34,000 examinees to appear into the Mains examination. The figure is over and above the original list of 6,000 candidates declared passed when the PT result came last year.
Minimum marks for the General is 40 per cent of the maximum marks whereas 36.5 per cent for OBC, 34 per cent for Extremely Backward classes and 32 per cent for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women. The Personnel Department’s resolution made it clear that the relaxation is applicable for the 6th JPSC civil services only.
The issue had been raised vociferously in the Assembly. Acting swiftly, the Government had requested the JPSC for modifications and in the very next Cabinet meeting a decision to put the Mains exam on hold was taken. Nevertheless, there are certain sections of aspirants who are opposed to raising the number of successful candidates more than originally declared 15 times of the vacancy.