KISHORE KUMAR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions arise from a common controversy and the twenty -nine petitioners in all the six petitions who are holding the teaching posts of Reader and Professor in different colleges under the Magadh University seek similar reliefs. All these cases were, therefore, heard together and are being disposed by this judgment.

(2.) The issue at the core of the controversy in all these writ petitioners is whether the lecturers whose service were absorbed in the University or the college concerned under the three statutes for regularisation of services of purely temporary lecturers are entitled to take into account the period of their service rendered before absorption (for the sake of convenience hereinafter referred to as 'the previous service') for the purpose of computing the period of qualifying service for promotion to the posts of Reader and Professor under the merit promotion or the bime -bound promotion statutes, even though the previous service might not be in accordance with law. It is indeed true that this controversy is raised, at the instance of the State, after a long time. And as a result the petitioners who had become used to the promotions allowed to them long ago and the benefits, including the monetary benefits, accruing from their promotions now feel much aggrieved by the Government decision and the consequences flowing from that decision. But, the controversy has arisen under unusual circumstances and in a somewhat uncommon way and in one sense the genesis of this controversy may be said to lie in an order passed by this Court in another, pending case (being CWJC No. 5859 of 1996) in which it is the endeavour of this Court to have a realistic budget for the B.R. Ambedkar Bihar University prepared by a one -man committee appointed by the Court.

(3.) But, before proceeding to examine how and in what manner this controversy has arisen, it is necessary to see what is the exact and the real nature of the controversy.