Ravi Shankar vs State of Jharkhand and Others

S.J. Mukhopadhaya, J.—The petitioner has prayed for direction on respondents to delete the endorsement made by respondents in the provisional certificate and Character Certificate and shown pendency of a CBI case against the petitioner.

The brief facts of the case is that the petitioner appeared in the Combined Engineering Entrance Examination 1996 and was declared successful. After counseling held on 12th August, 1996, the petitioner having opted for RIT, Jamshedpur (Now known as NIT), was admitted in the said college in the first year engineering course.

In the meantime a number of writ petitions being CWJC No. 7666/1996 and others were preferred by one Pramod Kumar Dukania and others before the Patna High Court for cancellation of results of the Combined Engineering Entrance Examination, 1996 on the ground of use of unfair means and manipulation of answer-sheets. It was pleaded that candidates having good academic records though did fairly well were not selected because large scale bungling done at the instance of Mr. Brij Bihari Prasad (since deceased), the then Minister, Department of Science and Technology in connivance with the co-convenor Dr. R.C. Das "Vikal" to advance the cause of about 200 candidates for extraneous considerations. The writ petitions aforesaid were disposed off by learned Single Judge by a common judgment, reported in 1997 (2) BLJ 488 (Pramod Kumar Dukania and Ors. v. State of Bihar and Ors). Learned Single Judge held that each of the proven circumstances, as discussed in the said case, leads to an irresistible conclusion that a deep-seated fraud and manipulation were done in the Combined Engineering Entrance Examination, 1996, benefiting the respondents of those cases. The case was referred to CBI, Patna to investigate the matter and to submit report within three months for appropriate direction regarding prosecution of persons, found to have been indulged in such activities.

The judgment aforesaid was challenged by some candidates before a Division Bench of Patna High Court in LPA No. 876 of 1997 (Nitin Kumar and others) Letters Patent Appeals. All the LPAs were heard and disposed off by a Division Bench by a common judgment and order dated 22nd May, 1998 with the following observations :--

"In the instant case only after the order passed by the learned Writ Court, the crime is being investigated by the CBI and, therefore, it cannot be said that Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act creates a legal impediment. Thus investigation is not suffering from legal infirmity.

We have already observed in the preceding paragraphs that in pursuance of the direction of the learned Writ Court, though investigation by the CBI is in progress but the admissions of the examinees have been cancelled and yet the investigation has not culminated by filing a charge-sheet against the examinees, Minister or other officials said to have been involved in this matter. Therefore, ultimately if in investigation nothing is found against the examinees so as to make them liable for prosecution, in our opinion, in that event, possibility of considerable irreparable harm to them cannot be set back. Hence, in order to prevent that irreparable harm, in our view, it will be desirable in the interest of justice, enquiry and good conscience that till the truth is investigated and finally not revealed by the CBI by submitting charge-sheet against the concerned persons, the admission of the examinees, so cancelled is liable to be remedied by restoring the status quo ante as it was on 20.8.1996 by the interim order passed by the Writ Court on that day meaning thereby that the admission of the concerned students in the respective colleges shall be subject to the presentation of charge-sheet and taking of cognizance by the Court concerned by framing charges against them.

Thus, as a result thereof, the admission of the concerned examinees is relegated to the stage of the interim order dated 20.8.1996 passed by the writ Court and shall continue till the charge-sheet is submitted against them and pursuant to the charge-sheet, charges are framed by the Court concerned against them.

However, it is made clear that during the course of investigation, the concerned examinees and all other concerned persons shall co-operate with the investigation and shall make themselves available to the Investigating agency for interrogation etc, if and when required by them.

With the above directions, these appeals are finally disposed off. However, there shall be no order as to costs."

In the light of the Division Bench decision, petitioner and other candidates were admitted in B.Sc. Engineering Course in different Engineering Colleges, including RIT, Jamshedpur. They were also allowed to appear in the successive examinations and many of them having been declared successful were promoted to the next higher class and completed their studies.

Though many of students came out successful having passed final B.Sc. Engineering Examination held by the Ranchi University in the year 2000, they were not provided with final or provisional certificates. A Writ Petition (C) No. 4102/2001 was preferred by one Astha and another for direction on Ranchi University to issue certificates/provisional certificates, they having passed the final B.Sc. Engineering Examination held in the year 2000. A Bench of this Court vide its judgment and order dated 26th November, 2001 taking into consideration the aforesaid facts and that the CBI case No. 23/1997/P.C. No. 43/1997 was pending for five years and there was no likelihood of completion of such case in near future, directed the University to publish the result of the successful candidates and to handover the certificates/ provisional certificates of B.Sc. Engineering Examination, subject to the decision of the CBI case No. 23/1997/P.C. No. 43/1997.

The petitioner having come out successful, the Ranchi University had issued the provisional certificate and the Principal, R.I.T., Jamshedpur has issued the Character Certificate but in both the certificates an endorsement relating to pendency of the CBI case No. 23/1997/P.C. No. 43/1997 has been made.

One of the grounds taken by the petitioner is that if the endorsement is allowed to remain no employers will employ the petitioner and the certificates will be useless though there is a chance of acquittal in the case.

Further plea taken by the petitioner that in other cases similarly situated persons, having been granted certificates without any endorsement of pendency of CBI case, such as Anand Kumar, Rajiv Ran-jan and others. It is also stated that no such endorsement made by other Universities, where the candidates were admitted in pursuance of 1996 Combined Engineering Entrance Examination and who are also accused in the same case.

Mr. Anoop Kumar Mehta, counsel for the Ranchi University and R.I.T., Jam-shedpur while accepted the facts as pleaded by the petitioner, submitted that the certificate in favour of others may have been issued inadvertently.

In the facts and circumstances, in the interest of justice, equity and good conscience, as the CBI case has not reached its finality in last six years and there is nothing on the record to suggest that it will be finally decided within few months, as the petitioner cannot derive any benefit of his studies, if the endorsement made on the certificates is allowed to continue and as no such endorsement has been made in the case of other similarly situated persons, the respondents are directed to issue provisional certificate in favour of petitioner without any endorsement relating to CBI case, if the petitioner undertakes to communicate the Director, R.I.T., Jamshedpur and the learned CBI Court, Patna, the name of the employer under whom he is being employed and his present/current address, so that in case of any adverse decision against the petitioner, his employer may be informed of the decision of the CBI Court.

The counsel for the parties suggested a format which the petitioner will fill up and communicate to the learned Special Judge, CBI, North Bihar, Patna and the Director, R.I.T. (Now N.I.T., Jamshedpur) each and every year, till the final decision of the CBI case as given hereunder :--

''To

Special Judge, CBI North Bihar, Patna.

Director, National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.

I, Ravi Shankar S/o Sri Dilip Kumar, Ex-Student of N.T.I., Jamshedpur, Roll No. 153/96 (Production Engineering and Management) was a bona fide student of the Institute and I have passed out successfully after completing my 4-year course.

I am presently Employed in,....../ pursuing Higher studies in................ and my present/current address is as below :

............................................. ............................................. This information is being given by me in view of the pendency of the CBI case No. Special case No. 23/97 pending in the Court of Special Judge, CBI, North Bihar, Patna and pursuant to the order dated................passed by Hon''ble Jharkhand High Court in W.P. (C) No. 1403/2003.

Yours faithfully."

If the aforesaid undertaking is given by petitioner in the format to Court of learned Special Judge, CBI, North Bihar, Patna and the Director, RIT (Now NIT, Jamshedpur), the respondents will handover the petitioner a fresh certificate/provisional certificate and Character Certificate within fifteen days from the date of deposition of such undertaking.

The writ petition stands disposed off with aforesaid observations and directions.