B. SUBHASHAN REDDY, J.

( 1 ) THESE writ petitions relate to service jurisprudence and raise several important questions of law, both Constitutional and statutory. After the decision of the Supreme Court in L. Chandra Kumar vs. Union of India, the validity of several provisions of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as "the Tribunals Act") is challenged.

( 2 ) TWO legal practitioners have filed writ petitions - W. P. Nos. 21329 and 21439 of 1997 - questioning the constitutional validity of the provisions of the Tribunals Act. They got standing of 13 years and 20 years respectively at the Bar. They are the aspirants for either the Office of the Vice-Chairman or Member of the Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as "the tribunal")- The attack on the provisions of the Tribunals Act is on the touchstone of independence of judiciary with regard to tenure of appointment as also on the service conditions impinging upon the independence of judiciary.

( 3 ) THERE was delay in the appointment of teachers for one reason or the other and when large number of vacancies were to be filled up, disputes arose on the ground of commission of several irregularities in the conduct of examinations, raising both factual disputes and also interpretation of important questions of law - both constitutional and legal.

( 4 ) WRIT Petitionnos. 15463,15712,19784,21297,21460,21651,22039,22799, 22809 and 23677 of 1998 relate to posts of Secondary Grade Teachers (for short sg teachers ).

( 5 ) WRIT Petition Nos. 23390, 24276, 24288 and 24947 of 1998 relate to language Pandits Grade-II (either Telugu or Hindi or both ). Writ Petition no. 22633 of 1998 relates to the post of Physical Education Teacher.

( 6 ) SOME Writ Petitions have been filed after exhausting the remedy before the Tribunal and such writ petitions with the corresponding O. A. numbers of the Tribunal are mentioned below:

W. P. 21297/98

O. A. No. 3614/98

W. P. 21460/98

O. A. No. 3419/98

W. P. 22039/98

O. A. No. 3366/98

W. P. 22809/98

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W. P. 19784/98

O. A. NO. 3513/98

W. P. 22633/98

O. A. No. 5351/98

W. P. 24288/98

O. A. No. 5762/98.

( 7 ) THE other writ petitions have been directly filed in this Court seeking the reliefs mentioned therein, by assailing several provisions of the Tribunals act.

( 8 ) FOR recruitment of SG teachers, Telugu and Hindi Pandits Grade-II, physical Education Teachers, etc. , notification dated 15-3-1998 was issued by the Director of School Education calling for the applications from the candidates registered with Employment Exchanges in all the districts of andhra Pradesh. Each district is a unit with separate District Selection committee. Nevertheless, the examination papers are common all over the state. The applications had to be made in the form prescribed and addressed to the Convener, District Selection Committee (District Educational Officer) between 18-3-1998 and 31-3-1998 (both days inclusive ). There were nearly 40,000 posts notified in the category of SG teachers while the vacancies in other posts are relatively less. A note has been appended to the said notification stating the conditions. Important among them are : (i) Local area reservation will be followed; (ii) Rule of reservation to ST, SC, BC, Physically handicapped and Ex-servicemen will be observed and so also 33 1/3% for women; (iii) preference as to the institution, i. e. , Government/zilla Parishad/mandal parishad has to be indicated in the application, if selected; (iv) Recruitment to the posts of teachers will be subject to the cases pending both in the Supreme court, High Court and the Tribunal; (v) Minimum qualification for SG teachers was prescribed as a pass in Intermediate or equivalent and also Teacher training Certificate issued by the Commissioner for Government examinations, Andhra Pradesh or equivalent certificate. Candidates having higher qualifications like B. Ed/b. Sc,, B. Ed. /b. Com. and B. Ed, were also made eligible; (vi) 85 marks were al