SRI LAXMINATH JHA SON OF LATE BAL KRISHNA JHA & ORS. Vs. THE L.N.M. UNIVERSITY, DARBHANGA THROUGH ITS VICE-CHANCELLOR AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD the parties. Since all the three writ petitions involve a common question of law, hence they have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common order. For the purpose of convenience reliance shall be placed generally upon the facts available in the records of C.W.J.C. No. 3127 of 1999 unless otherwise indicated.

(2.) THERE is no controversy of facts involved in these cases. In the first case B.M. College, Rahika, District -Madhubani had been affiliated up to Intermediate level from 1.6.1974 and had received affiliation up to degree standard on 1.6.1981. Similar is the case with the concerned colleges involved in the other writ petitions. In their cases also affiliation up to degree standard came later and when the time came for implementation of Statute of 1986 for Time Bound Promotion of Lecturers to the post of Reader and of Reader to University Professor (hereinafter referred to as the Statue of 1986), there arose a necessity to take a decision in a large number of cases in different Universities of Bihar including respondent Lalit Narayan Mithila University, whether for reckoning the required 10 years length of service for promotion to the post of Reader the services rendered in degree college alone shall be taken into account or service rendered when the college was affiliated only up to Intermediate level shall also be counted. Initially there was confusion and time bound promotions were granted by counting service rendered even in Intermediate Colleges but by the impugned decision the date of time bound promotion to the individual petitioners were redetermined from later periods by counting ten years of continuous service only after the college became a degree college by grant of necessary affiliation by the University.

(3.) LEARNED counsel appearing for the petitioners have placed reliance upon the words in the proviso noticed above. For the sake of convenience it will be useful to extract clause (1) of the Statute dated 24.12.1986 up to the first proviso which is most important and runs as follows: - -