The absence of names in DISE Data does not justify exclusion from provincialisation under the Assam Education Act; teachers in Venture Junior Colleges are not required to be listed in DISE Code.

ORDER :

N. Unni Krishnan Nair, J.

1. Heard Mr. K. Uddin, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. U. Sarma, learned standing counsel, Secondary Education Department, appearing for the respondents.

2. As agreed to by the learned counsels appearing for the parties; this writ petition is taken-up for final consideration and disposal.

3. The petitioners, by way of instituting the present proceeding have raised a grievance with regard to non-consideration of their cases for provincialisation of their services as Tutor/Teacher in Goalpara Girls' Junior College, on the ground that their names were not captured in the DISE Data as maintained for the said Junior College.

4. As projected in the writ petition, the petitioner no. 1 herein was appointed as a Lecturer in Logic & Philosophy on 25.11.2010 by the Managing Committee of the said Junior College and had joined in her services in the said Junior College on 30.11.2010. Thereafter, it is contended that her services was upgraded to the 1st post of Lecturer in Logic & Philosophy in the said College. Likewise, the petitioner no. 2 was appointed as a Lecturer in History (3rd post) vide an order of appointment dated 24.11.2010, issued by the Managing Committee of the said Junior College and he had joined in his services on 29.11.2010. It is also contended that the petitioner no. 2 was upgraded to the 1st post of Lecturer in History as per the Resolution No. 4 of the Governing Body of the College, dated 10.05.2017.

5. The Goalpara Girls' Junior College is a Senior Secondary School, under the Secondary Education Department. Upon enactment of the Assam Education (Provincialization of Services of Teachers and Re-organization of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017, the particulars of the eligible teachers of the said Junior College including that of the present petitioners were submitted before the departmental authorities and accordingly, the case of the petitioners came to be placed before the jurisdictional DLSC for verification of their service particulars. Upon such verification of their service particulars, it is contended that the jurisdictional DLSC had recommended the names of the petitioners along with other teachers working in the College found to be eligible for provincialisation of their services and thereafter, as projected in the writ petition, the cases of the petitioners and other eligible serving teachers of the said College came to be placed before the SLSC for further verification of their service particulars.

6. It is the categorical contention of the petitioner herein that the SLSC had recommended their names for provincialisation of their respective services along with other eligible teachers of the said College. It is the contention of the petitioners that vide an order dated 04.02.2021, the Director of Secondary Education, Assam had proceeded to provincialise the services of similarly situated teachers in the said Junior College, however, the names of the petitioners herein came to be dropped from the purview of such provincialisation. It is to be noted that the services of the teachers found eligible for provincialisation of their services were so provincialised vide order, dated 04.02.2021 w.e.f. 01.01.2021 and Baladmari High School was identified as the base school for the said Junior College. On enquiry, the petitioners were given to understand that their cases for provincialisation were not so considered in view of the fact that their names were not captured in the DISE Data for the relevant period of time and accordingly, the respondent authorities not being in a position, in absence of existence of the names of the petitioners herein in the DISE Data, to come to a conclusion with regard to their continuous nature of service, the names of the petitioners herein were excluded from the purview of provincialisation of their services under the provisions of Assam Education (Provincialization of Services of Teachers and Re-organization of Educational Institutions)