Jharkhand High Court dismissed the petition filed by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission and directed it to appoint Manoj Kachhap as Assistant Professor( Nagpuri Language) and him, who was the respondent, Rs 1 lakh as costs.

The judicial order was passed by the Bench comprising Chief Justice M.S.Ramachandra Rao and Justice Rajesh Shankar. This was in response to the Letters Patent Appeal( L.P.A.) filed by JPSC against the order of a single judge bench of the Jharkhand High Court which had held the respondent ( Manoj Kachhap), a Scheduled Tribe candidate, entitled to an appointment as Assistant Professor.

The Division Bench noted the “ backwardness and myriad issues faced by the community” and that “ it would be traversing of justice to not appoint a deserving candidate like the respondent due to a fee glitch” which was only discovered later.

As per judicial records, the JPSC had advertised for appointment of Assistant Professor post for Nagpuri language. Manoj Kachhap secured 72.10 out of 85 in written exam. Yet his name was inexplicably missing from the JPSC’s list of candidates called for interviews.It was later discovered that his application fees that had not been credited to the JPSC’s account, leading to his exclusion from the interview stage.

Aggrieved, Manoj Kachhap filed a writ petition. The single Bench of the court subsequently directed the JPSC to allow him to appear for an interview, which he did, scoring 9.50 out of 50 marks.This brought his total score to 75.60 out of 100, placing him 1st in the ST category. The court then ruled that he was entitled to an appointment to the post.

Instead of following the directive of the court, JPSC filed L.P.A. against the order of the single bench. Now, the double bench has upheld the single bench judgement and directed the JPSC to not only issue order for his appointment, but to pay him ( the respondent ) Rs 1 lakh as costs.