MANOJ KUMAR ROY Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The order in the form of notification dated 16.9.95 issued by the Dy. Secretary to the Govt. of Assam, Education Department, appointing the respondent No. 5 namely Smti. Charubala as Principal being posted at DIET, Udarband, Cachar, Silchar as in Anneuxre-6 to the writ petition is the subject matter under challenge in this writ petition. Apart from this, the Writ petitioner sought for appointing him as Principal, DIET, Udarband, Cachar, in place of the respondent No. 5.

(2.) According to the writ petitioner, he is M.Sc. in Chemistry, BT & LLB and he was initially appointed as subject teacher in Chemistry in Narsing Higher Secondary School, Silchar and he worked in the said capacity for about 16 years and thereafter, he was appointed as senior lecturer of DIET, Cachar, Udarband in the year 1989. In the year 1991, he was appointed as Vice Principal of the same institution and thereafter, in the year 1992, he was allowed to hold the current charge of Principal of the same institution in addition to his own duties on the retirement of the Principal of the said institution. After some time, the Principal of Teachers Training College, Silchar, was allowed to hold the current charge of Principal, DIET, Udarband, Cachar under a related order dated 7.1.93 and accordingly, the petitioner handed over the charge to the said Principal and remained as Vice Principal for some time. However, the Govt. again put the petitioner into the charge of Principal of the said institution on the retirement of the Incharge, Principal of DIET, Udarband and the petitioner took over charge from the out-going Incharge Principal and since then, he has been holding the post of Principal of the said institution till date.

(3.) It is also the case of the writ petitioner that in pursuance of the advertisement No. 8/ 93 issued by the Assam Public Service Commission, in short APSC, for selection and appointment of six (6) Principals of DIET, he being an eligible candidate applied for the same alongwith others. Out of the 43 candidates, 15 candidates had been selected and recommended in order of preference under the related order/ select list dated 21.11.94 issued by the APSC as in Annexure No. 5 to the writ petition. In the said select list, name of the petitioner appears at serial No. 15 and the name of respondent No. 5 appears at serial No. 13. The said respondent No. 5 is a Scheduled Caste candidate and the person appearing at serial No. 15 namely Shri Chanakya Brahma is STP. Initially, 5 candidates from the select list namely Chanakya Brahma, STP, (serial No. 15), Devakanata Gohain, OBC (serial No. 3), Kumud Ch. Patowary, General (serial No. 1), Ucharan Deka, General (serial No. 2) and Shri Nabin Ch. Dutta, General (serial No. 4) have been appointed as Principal of DIET. While the petitioner was expecting his appointment, the State-respondents had appointed the respondent No. 5 whose name appears at serial No. 15 in the select list, thus depriving the legitimate rights of the writ petitioner. According to the writ petitioner, respondent Mo. 5 is a Lecturer of DIET, Udarband and she is neither senior lecturer nor worked as Vice Principal or Principal Incharge of any DIET and as such, she is very junior in service, age and experience to the writ petitioner.