JUDGMENT AND ORDER :

1. Heard Mr. M.K. Choudhury learned senior counsel along with Mr. S.K. Goswami, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. D. Saikia, senior Addl. Advocate General, Assam; Mr. B. Gogoi, SC, Health Department; Mr. Tir Ao, Add. senior Govt. advocate, Nagaland for respondent No. 3; Mr. A.K. Sarma, Add. Advocate General, Mizoram, for respondent No. 4; Mr. B.D. Goswami, Add. Advocate General, Arunachal Pradesh assisted by Mr. Arun Chandran, Jr. Govt. Advocate, Arunachal Pradesh for respondent No. 5 and Mr. B. Deka, standing counsel, NEC.

2. These 2 petitions are taken up and heard together, considering the importance of the common issues running through these 2 petitions.

3. WP(C) No. 6640/2018 has been filed by one Dr. Bhabotosh Kumar Roy, being aggrieved by his transfer from Regional Dental College, Guwahati to Government Dental College, Dibrugarh as the Principal In-Charge, vide notification dated 4.9.2018, on the ground that he, being an employee of the Regional Dental College, which is an institution, established by the North Eastern Council (NEC) and, hence, not being a State Government institute, cannot be transferred to a State Government institute without his consent [State/State Government herein refers to the State of Assam], WP(C) No. 7231/2018 has been filed by the Regional Dental College Teachers' Association and Others in a representative capacity espousing a collective cause of the teachers of the Regional Dental College, seeking necessary directions from this court to prevent alteration of the service conditions of the faculty members of the Regional Dental College and to prevent amalgamation of the faculty members with that of the State run Dental Colleges, on the similar plea that the Regional Dental College being established by the NEC, has a regional character which would be compromised if the same is amalgamated with the State owned Dental Colleges.

4. From the above, it is evident that though in WP(C) No. 6640/2018, the petitioner is espousing his individual cause and in the other writ petition, WP(C) No. 7231/2018, the Association is espousing a collective cause, the common theme which runs through these petitions is that the Regional Dental College is a different entity having a regional character established for the benefit of all the North Eastern States on the initiative of the NEC, in which all the North Eastern States have stakes, which cannot be equated with any other institution exclusively established and managed by the State Government and as such, does not stand at par with State Dental Colleges like Dibrugarh Dental College and Silchar Dental College which were set up and managed exclusively by the State Government. Thus, the employees of the Regional Dental College cannot be utilised in these State Dental Colleges or be treated at par with the employees of these State Dental Colleges.

5. Before this court proceeds to examine the detail submissions advanced by the contesting parties in support of their respective pleas, it may be necessary to advert to some of the basic facts involved in the case regarding some of which, there seems to be no dispute and there is near unanimity.

6. Considering the absence of teaching facilities in dental science in the North Eastern Region comprising the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland and the then Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram which compelled the candidates of these States and Union Territories to seek admission in Dental Colleges elsewhere in the country, and also non-availability of adequate number of Dental Surgeons in the entire North Eastern Region, a proposal was mooted by the North Eastern Council for setting up a Dental Wing as part of the Gauhati Medical College to impart training and education of the dentists in the region and to meet the long felt need of the States and the Union Territ