VIRENDRA KUMAR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE three appeals are directed against a common order, dated 25.8.2005 passed by a learned Single Judge of the Court, dismissing three writ petitions filed by the appellants challenging the order of their removal from service as Personal Assistants/Reporters in the Bihar Legislative Assembly.

(2.) THIS is the third and hopefully the final phase of the cleansing operation in regard to a large number of illegal appointments made in the Assembly on different Class -Ill and Class -IV posts during the tenure of one Mr. Ghulam Sarwar as its Speaker. Before Mr. Sarwar, the staff strength in the office of the Assembly was about 600. During his term, it was increased by over 75% by appointment of around 460 people. Almost all those appointments were made in complete disregard of the right to equality guaranteed under Articles 14 & 16 of the Constitution and in total violation of the statutory rules for making appointments in the Assembly Secretariat. But it is a matter of some satisfaction that the rule of law asserted itself and the illegal appointees were finally removed, though after protracted litigations in three phases spread over seventeen years.

(3.) AGAINST the judgment of the learned Single Judge, appeals were filed by the Bihar Legislative Assembly and some of the affected employees. The appeals were first heard by a Division Bench but there was a difference of opinion between the two Judges constituting the Bench. As a result, the appeals came to be heard before a third Judge who dismissed them by judgment and order, dated 8.11.1996 reported as Bihar Legislative Assembly vs. Harendra Kumar Pandey, 1997(1) PLJR 1. The matter was then taken to the Supreme Court in S.L.P. (Civil) Nos. 22747, 22869 and 23379 of 1996. All the Special Leave Petitions were dismissed on 2.12.1996. This concluded the first phase in which 185 people appointed during the period June 15 to November 1, 1990 were finally removed from the service of the Assembly.