Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme - Bihar (SC/ST)

What is the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme in Bihar?

Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme in Bihar is a fee-and-maintenance scholarship for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students studying beyond Class 10, administered by the SC/ST Welfare Department, Government of Bihar. It is the state's implementation of the centrally supported post-matric scholarship for SC and ST students, and it is delivered entirely online through the department's dedicated portal at scstpmsonline.bihar.gov.in, with the umbrella state scholarship portal at pmsonline.bih.nic.in.

"Post-matric" means after matriculation, that is, after Class 10. The scholarship therefore covers Class 11 and 12, ITI and polytechnic diplomas, undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees and professional courses such as engineering, medicine, law and management, provided the institution is registered on the portal.

The scholarship has two components. The first is reimbursement of course fees actually charged by the institution, which is why the fee receipt is a mandatory document and why professional courses attract larger amounts. The second is a maintenance allowance towards living costs, which is set at different rates for hostellers and day scholars and by group of course. Amounts across the Bihar scholarship portal's schemes are commonly reported in the range of about Rs 2,000 to Rs 15,000 a year depending on class and category, with professional courses at the upper end.

The same portal ecosystem also carries the post-matric scholarship for Backward Class and Extremely Backward Class students, run by a different department. Students frequently apply on the wrong stream. Check which department's scheme matches your caste certificate before you begin.

Who is eligible for the Bihar Post-Matric Scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are a permanent resident of Bihar and can produce a residence certificate issued through the RTPS system.
• You belong to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe category and hold a caste certificate from a competent authority in Bihar.
• You are a bonafide student of a registered institution. The institution must itself be registered on the portal and must have added your course, since a student cannot apply against a course the institution has not listed.
• You are studying in a post-matriculation course, meaning any recognised course after Class 10.
• Your family income is within the notified ceiling for your academic year.
• You hold a sole savings bank account in your own name, Aadhaar-seeded for Direct Benefit Transfer.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are not domiciled in Bihar, or cannot produce a Bihar residence certificate.
• Your caste certificate is for a category not covered by this stream; BC and EBC students must use the corresponding BC/EBC scheme rather than the SC/ST one.
• Your institution is not registered on the portal, or has not added your course. Ask your college's nodal officer to complete registration; the portal warns that institutions that do not register applicable courses promptly face deactivation.
• Your family income exceeds the notified ceiling.
• You have already registered once for the same academic year. The portal permits one registration per student per academic year.
• You hold only a joint bank account, which the portal expressly does not accept.
• Your documents are tampered with or false, the portal states that this results in rejection of the application and legal action.

How much does the Bihar Post-Matric Scholarship pay?

The amount is not a single figure. It is calculated from two things: the fees your institution actually charged, evidenced by your fee receipt, and the maintenance allowance rate applicable to your course group and to whether you are a hosteller or a day scholar.

Across the Bihar scholarship portal, per-year support for post-matric students is commonly reported in the Rs 2,000 to Rs 15,000 band, rising well beyond that for professional and technical courses where fees are high, because the fee component is a reimbursement rather than a flat grant. The department publishes the applicable rate table for each academic year, and that table: not any secondary summary, is the authoritative source for what a specific course draws. Ask your institution's nodal officer for the current year's rate chart.

Payment is made by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own Aadhaar-seeded account. This is the reason the portal is emphatic that Aadhaar must be linked to the bank account: without seeding, the sanction may pass but the money will not arrive.

What documents are required for the Bihar Post-Matric Scholarship?

A practical constraint that trips up a large number of applicants: all scanned documents must be in PDF format and under 150 KB each. Scan at a moderate resolution in black and white rather than uploading a full-colour phone photograph, or the upload will fail.

The income certificate date window is the second common trap. The portal specifies that income certificates must fall within a defined date range for each academic year. A certificate issued two years ago will be rejected even if the income has not changed. Get a fresh income certificate from the RTPS counter before the application window opens.

How to apply for the Bihar Post-Matric Scholarship online

1. Confirm your institution is registered. Ask your college or school's nodal officer whether the institution has registered on scstpmsonline.bihar.gov.in and uploaded your course. A student cannot apply until the institution has done this. Do not register yourself as an institution — the portal warns students against this specifically.
2. Register as a student on the portal for the current academic year, using your own mobile number and email address. Save the user ID and password the portal issues.
3. Fill the application form with your personal details, caste category, family income, course, institution and bank account details. Enter the bank account number exactly as printed on your passbook, in your own name only.
4. Upload the scanned documents; Aadhaar, photograph, bonafide certificate, fee receipt, income certificate, residence certificate, caste certificate, previous passing certificate and previous marksheet: each as a PDF under 150 KB.
5. Finalise and submit the application. An application saved but not finalised is not considered submitted, and this alone accounts for a great many "my scholarship never came" complaints.
6. Your institution verifies the application and forwards it to the department, which conducts its own verification before sanction.
7. Monitor your application continuously through SMS, email and the portal. If it is marked defective, correct it within 15 days. The portal states that a defective application becomes permanently rejected after 15 days of inaction.
8. On sanction, the amount is credited to your Aadhaar-seeded bank account by DBT.

There is no offline route. The department has stated that the process is entirely online, and applications on paper are not entertained.

How to check your Bihar Post-Matric Scholarship status

1. Log in to scstpmsonline.bihar.gov.in with the user ID and password issued at registration.
2. Open the application status section and read the current stage; submitted, institution verification pending, verified, defective, sanctioned or paid.
3. Watch the SMS and email alerts sent to your registered mobile number and email address; a defect notice arrives this way and the 15-day clock starts from it.
4. Ask your institution's nodal officer if the status sits at institution verification for more than a few weeks.
5. Download the mobile app published for the portal on Google Play, which mirrors the status view.

Why Bihar Post-Matric Scholarship applications get rejected

• Joint bank account instead of a sole account in the student's own name.
• Aadhaar not linked to the bank account, so DBT fails even after sanction.
• Income certificate outside the permitted issue-date window for the academic year.
• Defective application not corrected within 15 days, which makes the rejection permanent.
• Institution has not registered the course on the portal, leaving the student unable to map to a valid course code.
• Document files over 150 KB or not in PDF format, causing incomplete uploads.
• Application saved but never finalised, which the system does not treat as submitted.
• Name mismatch across Aadhaar, marksheet, caste certificate and bank passbook.
• Tampered or false documents, which lead to rejection and to legal action.

Where to get help and raise a grievance

• Institution nodal officer. The first and most effective point of contact, because every application passes through the institution.
• Portal helpdesk: 9534547098 and 8986294256
• Email support: postmatricbiharhelp2223@gmail.com
• District Welfare Officer (SC/ST) at the district collectorate, for escalation above the institution.
• SC/ST Welfare Department, Government of Bihar, for policy questions and for the current year's rate chart and income ceiling.

Applying is free. No fee is charged by the department or the portal at any stage, and no agent can obtain a sanction faster for money. If a cyber cafe fills the form for you, whatever it charges is its own service fee and not a government charge.