JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. M.U. Mondal, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. A. Phukan, learned counsel for the respondents in the Elementary Education Department of Government of Assam, Mr. B. Choudhury, learned counsel for the respondents in the SSA and as well as BTC respectively and Ms. D.D. Barman, learned Additional Senior Government Advocate for the respondent No. 6 being the Deputy Commissioner, Chirang.

2. This writ petition is instituted by Jiban Ch. Barman and Monjit Kumar Brahma both being teachers of Beltoli Nabajyoti LP School which is a mixed medium school. It is stated that the petitioner No. 1 Jiban Ch. Barman has been working as the Head Teacher from 16.11.1999 and the petitioner No. 2 Monjit Kumar Brahma has been working as an Assistant Teacher from 27.02.2002. The school was initially allotted the DISE Code No. 0311206 for the period 20092010 to till date. By a letter dated 01.11.2012 the school along with its DISE Code was bifurcated and was brought under the purview of Chirang district upon the bifurcation of the earlier Bongaigaon district into Bongaigaon district and Chirang district.

3. The claim of the petitioners for provincialisation was required to have been processed under the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011 (in short, the Act of 2011) but the matter could not be taken further inasmuchas the DISE data regarding the school which is required to be maintained was not maintained in the appropriate manner. In the circumstances, the orders dated 29.09.2015, 07.07.2022 and 25.07.2022 were passed by the Director of Elementary Education, Assam and the Mission Director, Samagra Shiksha, Assam respectively, by which the claim for provincialisation of the petitioners stood rejected.

4. In the order dated 29.09.2015 of the Director of Elementary Education, Assam the claim for provincialisation under the Act of 2011 was rejected by providing that the petitioner school namely Beltoli Nabajyoti LP School which was under Borobazar Educational Block of Chirang district did not have a DISE Code for the year 2009-2010 or prior to 2009-2010. By the order dated 07.07.2022 of the Mission Director of Samagra Shiksha, Assam (SSA, Assam) an order was passed that the DISE data is maintained by an institution named NIEPA (National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration), New Delhi under the Government of India in the Education Department and therefore, it was not possible for the authorities under the SSA to modify or rectify the DISE data in respect of the Beltoli Nabajyoti LP School. By the order dated 25.07.2022 of the Director of Elementary Education, Assam, the claim for provincialisation of the petitioner school was rejected by taking a stand that it was not possible for the authorities either in the SSA or in the Director of Elementary Education, Assam to modify or rectify the DISE data which had already been frozen by the NIEPA functioned under the Ministry of Education Government of India.

5. Being aggrieved the present writ petition is instituted seeking a direction for setting aside the three orders dated 29.09.2015, 07.07.2022 and 25.07.2022 and also for a direction to the respondent authorities to provincialise the services of the petitioners.

6. We take note that the process for provincialisation of the petitioners was undertaken under the Act of 2011 but in the meantime the Act of 2011 had been declared to be ultra-virus by the judgment of this Court in Chandan Kr. Neog and others Vs. The State of Assam and others reported in 2016 (5) GLT 296. Upon the Act of 2011 being declared to be ultra-virus the State respondents had enacted the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-Organization of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017 (in short, the Act of 2017).

7. As the matter had not been carried forward sufficient enough to invoke the provisions of the Act of 2011, we are of the view that the claim for provincialisation