IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.5486 of 2007 Prabha Kumari, D/o Kedar Prasad Sahu, Resident of Mohalla- Electricity Board Colony, Rajbanshi Nagar, P.O. + P.S. Shastri Nagar, Dist. Patna. …… Petitioner Versus 1. The State Of Bihar through the Chief Secretary, Old Secretariat, Patna. 2. The Secretary, Human Resources Development Department, Government of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna. 3. The District Education Officer, Distt- Patna. 4. The District Superintendent of Education, Distt.- Patna. 5. The Commissioner-cum-Chief Executive Officer, Patna Muncipal Corporation, …….Respondents ----------- For the petitioner : Mr. Mahendra Pd. Gupta, Advocate. Mr. Brajesh Kumar, Advocate. For the State : Mr. Mani Kant Mishra, G.P.21 with Mr. Ranjeet Kumar, A.C. to G.P.21 For Patna Municipal Cor.: Mr. Bishwa Bibhuti Kumar Singh, Advocate. ------------ 6/ 16.04.2009 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the State. On the pleadings of the parties, the admitted position that emerges is that the competent authority to receive the application under the advertisement was the District Superintendent of Education. The petitioner submitted the application before the District Education Officer, who was not competent to receive the same. The fact that this incompetent application may have been entertained and the name of the petitioner may have found place in the merit list is of no consequence. Once the applicant did not fulfill the stipulation in the advertisement for submission of the application before the competent authority, there was never an application made by her. Any error committed by the respondents in consideration of such an application shall not enure to the benefit of the petitioner. If the court were to direct that the application submitted by the petitioner before the incompetent authority be condoned for the reason that whatever the defect may be, she now figured in the merit list, - 2 - this court by judicial order shall violate Article 14 of the Constitution of India. It is not the jurisdiction of the court to relax the conditions of the advertisement or to direct the acceptance of an application contrary to the conditions of the advertisement. This shall be doing injustice to others also, who may not have been aware that submission of an application before the other authorities than the District Superintendent of Education could have also been entertained. There is no merit in this application which is, accordingly, dismissed. JA/- (Navin Sinha, J.)