The main legal point established in the judgment is the entitlement of the appellant's service to be regularised as a Headmistress, the inapplicability of the School Service Commission Act, 1997 to her case, and the legitimate expectation and equity principles in relieving her of hardship.

JUDGMENT

Kausik Chanda, J. - The appellant was appointed as Headmistress of an unrecognized secondary school, namely Palaspai Anchal Gita Rani Dhara Balika Vidyalaya in Hooghly district on February 9, 1984. The school was recognised by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education with effect from May 01, 1992. When the school was recognised, the appellant's service was approved as the Teacher-in-Charge with effect from the said date instead of Headmistress as she had completed about 8 years of service and did not have the required 10 years teaching experience at the time of recognition of the school.

2. The relevant District Inspector of Schools by a Memo No. 2080 dated December 31, 1993, requested the Director of School Education West Bengal to consider approval of appointment of the appellant as Headmistress. The relevant part of the said letter dated December 31, 1993 is reproduced below:-

"Now the question arises whether on the basis of the direction of the Hon'ble Court Smt. Saha be approved as the headmistress of the school in relaxation of the provisions contained in the G.O. No. 33 Edn (S) dated 7.3.1998 prescribing the qualification of the Headmaster/Headmistress and in consideration of the fact that she has been rendering her services as Headmistress w.e.f. 9.2.1984. Thus if the fact of her services rendered w.e.f. 9.2.1984 may be taken to be account as a very special case she might be approved as Headmistress w.e.f. 9.2.1994 i.e. completion of 10 years of services in conjunction of unapproved and approved service taken together."

3. Such request was turned down by the Director of School Education on July 11, 1994, by one line observation that the appellant had no requisite experience of teaching.

4. The appellant, thereafter, filed an application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India being W.P. No. 8328 (W) of 2002 praying for regularisation of her service as Headmistress of the said school which was disposed of by a learned Single Judge of this Court on July 01, 2002, giving a direction upon the Director of School Education, West Bengal to dispose of the representation made by the appellant by passing a speaking and reasoned order within a period of eight weeks from the date of such representation.

5. Pending consideration before the Director of School Education, West Bengal, some guardians of the wards of the said school filed a writ application being W.P. No. 12314 (W) of 2002 (In Re.: Anita Pattanayak - versus- State of West Bengal) against the appellant praying, inter alia, for restraining the Director School Education and other authorities of the State from appointing the appellant as Headmistress of the school.

6. A learned Single Judge of this Court passed an interim order on the said application on September 17, 2002, the relevant part of the said order is quoted below:-

"The respondent no. 9 had not been appointed and recognized to have been appointed as Headmaster of the recognised institution at any point of time. In that view of the matter, the question of the respondent no. 9 being appointed as headmistress of the institution does not and cannot arise. This appears to be the prima facie view of mine, and accordingly, I direct that until further orders, no one shall be appointed in any teaching post of the institution in question until she has been recognised to be appointed in such teaching post by the School service commission."

7. The Director of School Education in compliance of the order passed on July 01, 2002 in W.P. No. 8328 (W) of 2002, disposed of the case of the appellant by an order dated December 13, 2002, observing, inter alia, as follows:

"The petitioner is an M.A. in Political Science as well as in Music is being taught in the school as a subject besides, she had English and Bengali at the degree level. She passed M.A. in Political Science in 1979 and M.A. in Rabindra Sangeet from Rabindra Bharati University in 1983 she passed B.ED. Examinattion from the University of Calcutta in