JAMAL UDDIN AHMED Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A common legal issue of formidable moment involving analytical exposition of two sets of Rules framed in exercise of powers under Article 309 of the Constitution of India to govern the recruitment and conditions of service of the members of the Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised) Service has cobbled the proceedings seeking adjudication.

(2.) THE Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised) Service Rules, 1982 (for short, hereinafter referred to as 'the 1982 Rules') and the Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised) Service Rules, 2003 (for short, hereinafter referred to as 'the 2003 Rules') have in succession occupied the domain of the instant judicial survey- the debate being whether a teacher of the aforementioned Service and governed by these Rules on transfer on his/ her request from one school to the other forfeits the benefit of past service for reckoning his/her seniority in the new institution. Decisions of this Court proclaiming irreconcilable views have been rendered. Though the 2003 Rules enforced with effect from 11.8.2003 mandate through Rule 24(2)(v) thereof, loss of such seniority to be counted from the date of joining of the teacher in the school to which he/ she had been transferred on his/ her request, such an unequivocal provision to this effect is absent in the 1982 Rules. THE issue as well is as to the retrospe-ctivity or otherwise of this provision of the 2003 Rules.

(3.) HAVING regard to the above backdrop, allusion to the individual facts is inessential, though by way of illustration a sketch of the pleadings in WP(C) Nos. 177/2010 and 1046/2010 from which W.A. No. 131/2010 arises would be outlined as a prefatory edifice for a fuller appreciation of the rival contentions. HAVING regard to the Service to which the aforementioned Rules cater, this adjudication would be essentially limited to the members of the Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised) Service.