High Court
Case Details
WP(C) 2051/2013 BEFORE THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE N. CHAUDHURY
Legal Reasoning
By this writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for placement of his name as 1s t assistant teacher in Balitika Azad LP School, Nowbaisa Block of Lakhimpur dist rict, so that his service can be provincialised in due course. The Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act 2 011 was passed by the Government on 05.09.2011. The said Act was passed to provi ncialise the services of employees of Venture Educational Institutions in the St ate of Assam and also to restrict further establishment of such Educational inst itutions in the State. The Act not only provides the eligibility criteria for se lection of Educational Institutions for provincialisation, it also provides the procedure for promotion as well through District and State Level Scrutiny. Secti on 10 of the said Act provides for appointment of District Scrutiny Committee. T he District Scrutiny Committee has been defined under Section 2 of the Act. Sect ion 10 lays down the procedure for appointment of districts level committees as well as the procedure of its functioning. So far as District Scrutiny Committee for elementary education is concerned, the Deputy Commissioner or his nominee no t below the rank of Addl. deputy Commissioner has to be the Chairman and the Dis trict Elementary Education Officer is the Member Secretary. The Deputy Inspector of Schools of all the Sub-divisions shall be members, in addition to Block Elem entary Education Officer of all the Blocks and one eminent person in the field o f education is to be nominated by the Deputy Commissioner. Section 10 (2) provi des that the Deputy Commissioner shall constitute the District Scrutiny Committe e and Section 10 (3) prescribes that the said committee will first scrutinize an d prepare a list of all Venture Educational Institutions within the District whi ch are eligible in terms of this Act for being provincialised. By Section 10 (4) , the District Scrutiny Committee is to forward the verified list of eligible te achers in accordance with the number of posts specified in the Schedule appended to this Act to the concerned Director who is to make such further scrutiny as m ay be required and shall forward the same to the concerned department of the Sta te Government for considering and for issuing notification in respect of eligibl e institutions and employees eligible for getting their services provincialised. In the case in hand, the petitioner is a 2nd assistant teacher of Balitika Azad L.P. School, Naobaisa Block of Lakhimpur district. The petitioner claims to have been appointed in the said school on 12.06.2004 as 2nd assistant teacher. Accor ding to the writ petitioner one Sri Arun Mandal was first assistant teacher of t he School. The Managing committee of the school sent records to the District Scr utiny Committee by adopting necessary resolution and by furnishing particulars o f the school for consideration under section 10 of the aforesaid Act. Accordingl y, District Scrutiny Committee prepared list and in the said list the name of th e petitioner appeared as 2nd assistant teacher and the aforesaid Sri Arun Mondal as the 1st assistant teacher. The proceeding of The District Scrutiny Committee was sent to the Director who after necessary enquiry made recommendation to the State Government. It is submitted at the Bar that accordingly school wise parti culars of the selected schools have been placed in the Website of the Education Department, showing the names and particulars of the teachers. Writ petitioner states that while the aforesaid exercise was on, the 1st assista nt teacher of the school came to be convicted in Lakhimpur Sessions Case being N o. 43 (NL) of 2009 under Section 302 IPC and he was awarded life imprisonment vi de judgment and order dated 29.11.2012. The petitioner further claims that pursu ant to his conviction said Arun Mondal has been terminated from service vide res olution dated 17.12.2013 adopted by the School Managing Committee and the same h as been forwarded to the appropriate authority. It is submitted that the Distric t Elementary Education Officer who happens to be the Member Secretary of the Dis trict Scrutiny Committee has already passed an order on 10.01.2013, removing the name of Arun Mondal from the list of teachers and consequently placing the name of the petitioner as 1st assistant teacher of the school to be considered for t he purpose of provincialisation. The grievance of the petitioner is that althoug h such exercise has been made by the District Elementary Education Officer in th e capacity of Member Secretary of District Scrutiny Committee, the Director Elem entary Education has failed to take any action on the same and as such error has crept in the particulars of Balitika Azad L.P.School of Naobaisa Block of Lakhi
Decision
mpur district. It would appear from the Section 10 of the Act that once such exercise is comple te, there is no question of further exercise of the District Scrutiny Committee if any modification as in case in hand is required. Learned Standing Counsel fo r the Education Department submits that after publication of the particulars in the website of the Education Department in regard to provincialisaton of schools , opportunity was given to the persons for expressing their grievance and to pra y for redressal thereof either through the district committee or through the Sta te redressal committee as the case may be. In view of what has been stated above, I think ends of justice will be served if , the petitioner is given liberty to file appropriate application before the Dir ector of Elementary Education for making necessary correction in the list of eli gible teachers of Balitika Azad LP School, Naobaisa Block of Lakhimpur district within 2 weeks from to-day bringing this fact on record, whereupon the Director Elementary Education shall make a necessary enquiry in the nature as provided un der Section 10 (4) of the Act and thereafter, for effective modification in the particulars of the school in question. The said exercise shall be made within a period of one month from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order alo ng with the detail representation. The writ petition stands disposed of.