GOPEN KAKATI Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This intra -court appeal is directed against the order dated 24.6.2014 passed by the learned Single Judge of this High Court whereby he has dismissed appellant's Writ Petition (C) No.5547 of 2013.

(2.) In the School in question, there are three Assistant Science Teachers and, thus, as per provisions of the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011, only two Science Teachers could have been considered for provincialisation of their services. Therefore, two Science Teachers i.e. Respondent No.7 and one Smt. Ajanta Goswami were recommended whereupon their services have also been provincialized. Respondent No.7 is admittedly five years senior to the appellant. Also at the time of provincialisation he had completed 20 years of service as teacher. And, yet, appellant challenged the provincialiation of Respondent No.7 on the ground that he being a Science Graduate Teacher with subject combination of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, was entitled to get provincialisation over Respondent No.7, who though a Science Graduate had subject combination of Mathematics, Geography and Botany. According to the appellant, since Respondent No.7 passed graduation in Science without Chemistry, he could not fulfill the requirements of teaching Chemistry to students in the School. The learned Single Judge disagreed with appellant and dismissed his petition by the impugned order. Aggrieved, the appellant has filed the present appeal.

(3.) Assam Venture Education Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011 clearly provides that provincialiation of services are to be carried out on the basis of seniority of teachers. And, there is no provision in the Act relating to criteria of combination of subjects of Science Teacher. Moreover, as per Regulation 5 of the "Regulations for Recognition of High Schools and High Madrassas, 1988 of the Board of Secondary Education, Assam", under the head "Qualification of Teaching Staff", B.Sc. teachers should be selected so that all the major subjects of Science combination are covered for teaching in the school. Smt. Ajanta Goswami is B.Sc. Graduate with Chemistry as one of the subjects and, therefore, she fulfills the requirement of Regulation­5. Regulation -5 in no manner disqualifies Respondent No.7 from provincialisation of his service.