Point of Law : If the provisions of New Defined Contribution Pension Scheme as such is made applicable to the petitioners when there is clearly a reasonable classification with an intelligible differentia with the object at hand, the provisions of Article 14 of the Constitution of India would be violated.

JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. S K Goswami, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. R. Mazumdar, learned counsel for the respondents no. 1, 3 and 4 being the authorities under the Secondary Education Department, Government of Assam, Mr. A Chaliha, learned counsel for the respondent no. 2 being the Finance Department and Mr. A Hassan, learned counsel for the respondent no. 5 being the Accountant General, Assam.

2. The petitioners herein participated in a selection process pursuant to an advertisement issued in the local daily the Assam Tribune dated 03.09.1991. The said advertisement pertained to 200 posts of Assistant Teacher and 100 posts of Language Teacher for various High Schools in the State of Assam. In the resultant selection process, the District Level Selection Board published the select list dated 04.01.1995 constituency wise wherein the names of the petitioners were included as selected candidates for the posts of Assistant Teacher. Although some of the persons whose names were included in the said select list, were appointed, certain persons from outside the select list, were also given the appointments and thereby violated the merit position in the select list.

3. Being aggrieved, the petitioners instituted Civil Rule 3056/1997 assailing the action on the part of the respondents and also seeking for a direction to appoint them as Assistant Teachers as per merit position in the select list. The said writ petition was given a final consideration by the common judgment and order dated 25.08.1997 wherein it was provided as extracted:

“9. For the reasons stated above, I dispose of this batch of writ petitions with a direction that the Commissioner & Secretary to the Government of Assam, Education Department, and the Director of Secondary Education, Assam, shall within two months from today give effect to the orders dated 18th, 19th and 20th November, 1996, (Annexure ‘F’ & ‘G’ to the affidavit-in-opposition and Annexure –‘K’, ‘L’ & ‘M’ to the further affidavit) relating to Dharmapur, Nalbari, Barama, Barkhetri and Patacharkuchi constituencies of Nalbari District, cancelling the appointments of persons outside the select lists as well as the appointments of those person who were not entitled to appointment on the basis of their position of merit in the select lists and as per the provisions of law for reservation, and in their place offer appointment to the candidates who were entitled to appointment as per their position of merit in the select lists and as per the provisions of law for reservation.”

4. A reading of the conclusion arrived at by this Court in its judgment dated 25.08.1997 makes it discernable that the persons who were appointed from outside the select list or beyond the merit position are to be terminated and in their place, the appointments be officered to the candidates whose names were included in the select list in order of merit.

5. It is the claim of the petitioners that as per their position in the merit wise select list, they were entitled for an offer to be appointed, but thereafter, the Government by the notification dated 03.12.2003 had declared that all the existing select lists of candidates in the Elementary Education Department and Secondary Education Department which were issued prior to 01.04.2001 had completed its validity and therefore, would become infructuous.

6. The notification dated 03.12.2003 was assailed by the petitioners and others in WP(C)/8159/2004 which was given a final consideration by the judgment dated 25.09.2013. By the said judgment in WP(C)/8159/2004, the notification dated 03.12.2003 was set aside and a direction was issued to the respondent authorities to appoint the persons from, amongst others, select list dated 04.01.1995 after the police verification and if necessary by creating supernumerary posts within a period of three months thereof. In such manner, the petitioners were ultimately appointed as Assistant Teachers as per the order dated 16.09.2014 of the Inspecto