(1.) The Constitutional validity of the decisions of the Govt. of West Bengal to grant honorarium to the Imams and Muazzins of different Mosques in the State of West Bengal has been challenged in these writ petitions which have been filed as Public Interest Litigation before this court.
(2.) All these writ petitions involve similar facts and identical questions of law. Therefore, the writ petitions were heard analogously and are being disposed of by this common judgment.
(3.) In all these writ petitions legality, validity and propriety of the memorandum dated 9th April, 2012 issued by the Department of Minority Affairs & Madrasah Education, Govt. of West Bengal has been challenged whereby the State Government has offered to give honorarium of Rs. 2,500/- per month to Imams through Wakf Boad. Challenge has also been made to the decision of the State Government to pay monthly honorarium of Rs. 1000/- to Muazzins of Mosques. In the case of payment of honorarium to the Muazzins, no government order had been issued.