(1.) This batch of writ petitions instituted by several Venture Educational Institutions, individual as well as groups of teaching and non-teaching staffs of Venture Educational Institutions from the State of Assam, lay challenge to several provisions of "The Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-organisation of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017" (hereinafter referred to as "the Act of 2017") as well as the provisions of "The Assam Education (Provinci-alisation of Services of Teachers and Re-organisation of Educational Institutions) (Amendment) Act, 2018" (here-in-after referred to as the Amendment Act of 2018). The writ petitioners are basically aggrieved due to failure on the part of the State Government of Assam to provincialise their services. Since the vires of the Act of 2017 as well as the Amendment Act of 2018 are under challenge in these writ petitions, hence, by the order dtd. 27/4/2023 passed in W.P. (c) 2729/2019 and the batch of connected writ petitions, all these 80 writ petitions were bunched together and posted for analogous hearing. During the course of hearing, for the sake of convenience, these writ petitions had been further sub-divided and classified into multiple groups numbered and referred to as Group 1 to 23, based on the different provisions of the Statute that are involved there-in.
(2.) Since, different provisions of the Act of 2017 and the Amendment Act of 2018 are under challenge in this batch of writ petitions, hence, at the outset the provisions of the Statute under challenge are reproduced herein below for ready reference :
(3.) Eligibility criteria for selection of educational institution for provincialisation of services of teachers/ tutors:- (1) Subject to the provisions of Article 30 of the Constitution of India, the following categories of Venture Educational Institutions shall be eligible for being considered for provincialisation of the services of their teachers and tutors:-