Ranchi, Dec. 2: Jharkhand High Court has asked the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) not to discriminate between candidates on the basis of caste or place of residence.

The court also suggested that the JPSC introduce ?qualifying marks? to select candidates from reserved and unreserved categories. The court was hearing a petition filed by Pramod Tirkey against the commission on May 19 this year. Tirkey, who appeared for the JPSC?s preliminary tests for the state administrative services early this year, accused the commission of being biased and challenged its selection procedure.

The court directed the state and the JPSC to file an affidavit to inform whether the proposals offered by the court would be accepted by December 7 ? the next date of hearing.

The court also opined that the JPSC should publish a combined and revised merit list with the names of all eligible candidates belonging to various reserved and unreserved categories. The list, which would be released by the commission, would be in proportion to the number of posts available, the court suggested.

According to Tirkey?s counsels Rajiv Ranjan and Abhay Mishra, the JPSC had not calculated the petitioner?s marks in accordance with the reservation roster and had not given him the benefits allowed to candidates of the reserved category. Tirkey, who had mailed his form from Delhi, also said he had been was discriminated against as his mailing address was from outside the state.

The petitioner?s counsels had earlier pleaded that the JPSC had categorised students in four categories ? general, other backward class (OBC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Castes (SC) ? before conducting the examinations. But at the time of declaring the results, a new category ?others? was introduced which comprised students hailing from other states.

The court on May 21 directed the JPSC to produce necessary documents in its support against the allegations levelled by Tirkey.

The court had also mentioned that if the allegations of the petitioner were found to be untrue, he would have to deposit Rs 10,000 to the court as cost of proceedings. The court, however, found that Tirkey, who scored more than the cut-off marks for the general category, was rejected by the JPSC. Today, the court ruled that Tirkey is an ST candidate.

According to his counsels, JPSC did not shortlist Tirkey as his application form had a Delhi mailing address. The commission treated the petitioner as a candidate from another state and fixed his cut-off marks accordingly. The cut-off for candidates from outside the state is 30 per cent more than the general category.