JUDGMENT :

Heard the learned senior counsel and the learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. D. Saikia, learned Advocate General, assisted by Mr. R. Mazumdar, learned standing counsel for the Secondary Education Department and Mr. K.N. Choudhury, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. D.J. Das, learned counsel for the private respondent nos. 5 to 717 in W.P.(C) 3739/2020.

2. Based upon common facts, similar issues arise for determination in these series of writ petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. At the instance of the learned senior counsel and counsel appearing for all the parties, these matters were heard in the admission stage. These writ petitions have broadly been segregated under four following categories, viz.,

i. One set of writ petitions would consist of W.P.(C) 4455/2020, where, amongst others, prayer is that only those who have passed Teacher Eligibility Test (TET for short) in the examination held on 19.01.2020 without grace marks should be allowed to participate in recruitment process to the post of teacher. In this category W.P.(C) nos. 3739/2020, 3881/2020, 4038/2020, 4065/2020, 4109/2020, 4189/2020, 4192/2020, 4198/2020, 4303/202