JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. M. Hoque, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Ms. N.M. Sarma, learned counsel for the respondents no. 1 and 2 being the authorities under the Secondary Educational Department, Government of Assam and Ms. R.B. Bora, learned counsel for the respondents No.3 and 5 being the authorities under the BTC and.

2. Considering the nature of the order proposed to be passed, we deem it appropriate that notice need not be issued to the respondent No.4 for the present.

3. The petitioner Nur Mahammad Ali was appointed as a Lecturer in the subject Advance Assamese being the first post at Rowta College Senior Secondary School, Rowta on 01.09.1997. The grievance raised by the petitioner is that although the other teachers in the school concerned were subjected to the process of provincialisation under the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-Organisation of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017 (for short, the Act of 2017), the respondents have not given a due consideration to the claim of the petitioner, although the services of other teachers of the school have been provincialised.

4. We have been taken through the order dated 04.02.2021 of the Director of Secondary Education Assam which includes the names of the schools and the teachers thereof whose services have been provincialised either as a teacher or a tutor. In respect of Rowta College Senior Secondary School, Rowta, the list of teachers who were provincialised are available at page 19 (Annexure-G) of the writ petition which is a part of the order dated 04.02.2021. From the said list, it is taken note of that eight teachers of the school have been provincialised and all of them are teachers of subjects other than the subject Advance Assamese. We have also gone through the statement available at Annexure-E (page 17 to the writ petition) which shows the number of students in different subjects in Rowta College Senior Secondary School, Rowta. A reading of the said statement shows that in the final year examinations of the three previous years, in the subject Advance Assamese, 58 students had appeared in the year 2017 and 33 students had passed out. In the year 2018, 80 students had appeared and 50 students had passed out and in the year 2019, 36 students had appeared and 22 students had passed out. The pass percentage of students in the subject Advance Assamese was 56.90% in 2017, 62.50% in 2018 and 61.11% in the year 2019.

5. The entitlement of provincialisation of teachers in a Venture Higher Secondary School or a Venture Senior Secondary School is provided in Section 3(1)(vii) of the Act of 2017. Section 3(1)(vii) of the Act of 2017 is extracted as below:

“In addition to the provision under Clause (v) above, at least 10 students must have appeared in the last final examination in any subject in case of Venture High School, Venture High Madrassa, or Venture Higher Secondary School or Venture Junior College. At least 15 students in any subject must have appeared in case of Venture Degree College in the last final examination”.

6. A reading of Section 3(1)(vii) of the Act of 2017 would go to show that the services of one teacher or tutor as the case may be is to be provincialised in each subject of a venture senior secondary school provided that the subject concerned have atleast 10 students appearing in the last examinations of that particular subject in the particular school. The only requirement for provincialisation of the services of a teacher in a venture senior secondary school as provided under Section 3(1)(vii) is that in the given subject atleast 10 students must have appeared in the final examination in the given last year. As already indicated in the subject Advance Assamese, 58 students had appeared in the year 2017, 80 students had appeared in the year 2018 and 36 students had appeared in the year 2019 which infact was more than the required figure of 10 students appearing.

7. Section 3(1)(vii) does not provide for any furth