Patna High Court, BPSC and Bihar State Commissions

The judiciary and the recruiting commissions are the two halves of the machinery that runs a state, and in Bihar both are old institutions with a documented history. Article 214 of the Constitution gives every state a High Court, and the High Court of Bihar is the Patna High Court, set up in 1916 when the province was separated from the jurisdiction of the Calcutta High Court. Recruitment to the services of the state rests with the Bihar Public Service Commission under Article 315, with the staff selection, police and technical commissions below it, and the citizen looks to the human rights, information and women commissions, each created by statute. BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police and SSC papers ask for the foundation years, the seats, the appointing authorities and the article numbers, all of them fixed facts worth learning once.

How the Patna High Court came up

Until 1912 Bihar was part of the Bengal Presidency and its cases went to the High Court at Calcutta, which had been established in 1862 under the Indian High Courts Act, 1861. The province of Bihar and Orissa was created in 1912, and a High Court for it was set up by Letters Patent in February 1916; the Patna High Court began sitting on 1 March 1916 and completed a hundred years in 2016. Its first Chief Justice was Sir Edward Maynard Des Champs Chamier. The principal seat has always been at Patna, on the bank of the Ganga, and the court exercises jurisdiction over the whole of Bihar, that is over its 38 districts. For many years a Bench of the Patna High Court sat at Ranchi for the Chota Nagpur region; when Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar on 15 November 2000 under the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, that Bench became the separate High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi, so the Patna High Court today has no Bench outside Patna. A candidate should keep the three dates apart: 1862 for Calcutta, 1912 for the province and 1916 for the court.

Judges of the High Court

Article 216 says a High Court consists of a Chief Justice and such other judges as the President may from time to time deem it necessary to appoint, so no maximum strength is written into the Constitution. Under Article 217 a judge is appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the state and, for a judge other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of that High Court, and he holds office till the age of 62 years. The qualification is Indian citizenship together with ten years in a judicial office in India or ten years as an advocate of a High Court; unlike the Supreme Court, a High Court has no category of a distinguished jurist. The oath is administered by the Governor under Article 219, and Article 215 makes the court a court of record. A judge may be removed only by the President after each House of Parliament has passed an address by a majority of its total membership and two-thirds of the members present and voting, on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity, the procedure of Article 124(4) applied to High Courts by Article 218. Salaries are charged on the Consolidated Fund of the State under Article 221 while the pension comes from the Consolidated Fund of India, and a transfer from one High Court to another is made by the President under Article 222.

The subordinate judiciary of Bihar

Articles 233 to 237 cover the courts below the High Court, and they are a favourite of the Bihar Judicial Service examination. A district judge is appointed by the Governor of the state in consultation with the High Court, and a person not already in service must have been an advocate for at least seven years and must be recommended by the High Court. Appointments to other judicial posts in the state are made by the Governor under Article 234 in accordance with rules framed after consulting the State Public Service Commission and the High Court. Article 235 places the control over the district courts and the courts subordinate to them, including the posting, promotion and leave of their officers, in the hands of the High Court, which is what makes the judiciary of the state independent of its executive. In Bihar the Civil Judge (Junior Division) and the district judge posts are filled through examinations conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission on the High Court recommendation.

The Bihar Public Service Commission

Article 315 provides a Public Service Commission for the Union and one for each state, and BPSC, with its office at Patna, is the commission for Bihar. Its chairman and members are appointed by the Governor under Article 316 and hold office for six years or until the age of 62 years, whichever is earlier, the figure for a member of the Union Public Service Commission being 65 years. One-half of the members of a commission must be persons who have held office under the Government of India or a state for at least ten years. A member may resign by writing to the Governor, but he can be removed only by the President, under Article 317, on the report of the Supreme Court after an inquiry; the Governor may suspend him while the reference is pending. Article 320 lists the functions, which are to conduct examinations for appointment to the services of the state and to be consulted on recruitment, promotions, transfers and disciplinary matters, and the advice so given is not binding on the government. Expenses are charged on the Consolidated Fund of the State under Article 322, and the annual report under Article 323 goes to the Governor and then to the legislature with a memorandum on the cases in which the advice was rejected. BPSC conducts the Combined Competitive Examination for the Bihar Administrative Service and allied posts, the Assistant Engineer examination and the judicial service examinations.

The other commissions of the state

Two of these deserve a closer look. The State Human Rights Commission is headed by a person who has been a Chief Justice or a Judge of a High Court, appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee of the Chief Minister, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and after the amendment of 2019 the term of the chairperson and members is three years or the age of seventy; removal, as with a member of the Public Service Commission, is only by the President. The State Election Commission under Article 243K has a single State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor, who can be removed only in the manner and on the grounds prescribed for a judge of a High Court, and it was this commission that conducted the panchayat elections of 2006, in which Bihar became the first state in the country to reserve half the seats in panchayati raj institutions for women.