By Neeraj Kumar
Patna: In a significant legal development, the Patna High Court has dealt a major blow to contract workers by imposing an immediate ban on the appointment of Assistant Engineers (Civil) in the Rural Works Department on a contractual basis. The court has further directed the Bihar state government and the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) to submit a reply affidavit in response to the ruling.
A single-judge bench presided over by Justice Harish Kumar heard the petition filed by Shyam Babu and others. Representing the petitioners, Advocate Harsh Singh argued that an advertisement had been issued to recruit Assistant Engineers (Civil) based on Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) scores. Singh highlighted that a division bench of the High Court had previously rejected recruitment via GATE scores in a separate case, yet the Rural Works Department proceeded with the advertisement dated 9 January 2025 for 231 contractual posts.
The court has scheduled the next hearing for 13 February 2025. During proceedings, Justice Kumar underscored the need for clarity, demanding responses from the state and BPSC regarding the contentious recruitment criteria.
Notably, this ruling follows an earlier petition challenging Rule 8(1)(ii) and (iii) of the Engineering (Civil) Cadre Recruitment Rules-2023 under the Bihar Water Resources Department, which was dismissed by a division bench led by Acting Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar. The latest decision intensifies scrutiny over the legality of contractual appointments and GATE score-based recruitment in Bihar’s public sector engineering roles.
