Long service on a contractual basis does not confer a legal right to regularization without a formal scheme in place, as established by Supreme Court precedents.

JUDGMENT AND ORDER :

MICHAEL ZOTHANKHUMA, J.

1. Heard Mr. D. Das, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. K. Mohammed, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. K. Gogoi, learned counsel for the State respondents.

2. The 24 petitioners’ case is that they have been appointed as Guests/Part- time Lecturers in the Polytechnics and Engineering Colleges of Assam and due to their long engagement, the respondent authorities should be directed to formulate a scheme for regularisation of their services, by absorbing them in the sanctioned posts of Lecturers in the respective Polytechnics and Engineering Colleges.

3. The petitioners’ counsel submits that though the present case is covered by the judgments dismissing the batch of writ petitions, the lead case being WP(C) 159/2025 (Pramila Kumari Prajapati and 34 others Vs. State of Assam and 4 others) and in WP(C) 8073/2019 (Rahul Amin Reza and 15 others Vs. State of Assam and 4 others), which have been upheld by the Division Bench in WA NO.49/2025 and WA 47/2025 respectively, the case of some of the petitioners, for example petitioner nos.12, 14, 15 & 20 are slightly different from the case of the other writ petitioners.

4. The petitioners’ counsel submits that the petitioner No. 12 is a Guest/Part- time Assistant Professor/Lecturer in Mathematics in Jorhat Institute of Science and Technology (JIST) on contractual basis. Similarly, the petitioner Nos.1, 2, 7, 11 & 14 are Assistant Professors in Chemistry, while the petitioner Nos.5, 6 & 15 are Assistant Professors in Physics. The petitioner No. 20 is an Assistant Professor in Chemistry. They are all Guest/Part-time Faculty Members engaged on contractual basis in JIST even till today.

5. The petitioners’ counsel submits that while the State respondents have initiated a selection process through advertisement, for filling up the vacant sanctioned posts of Assistant Professor/Lecturers (Technical) and (Non- Technical) on regular basis, in the various Polytechnics and Engineering Colleges of Assam, the respondents are now seeking to terminate the services of all the petitioners. However, petitioner Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15 & 20 posts cannot be said to be included within the posts of term Lecturers (Non-Technical), as they belong to the science stream.

6. The petitioners’ counsel submits that some of the petitioners belong to the Science stream, which is a completely different stream from Lecturers (Technical) and (Non-Technical). He submits that the post of Lecturers (Technical) is for those persons, who have a degree in Engineering. The post of Assistant Professor/Lecturer (Non-Technical) would be for those persons who do not have Engineering degrees and those persons in the Science stream. He submits that the subjects Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics belongs to the Science Stream and the same cannot be included in the posts of Assistant Professor/Lecturer (Non-Technical).

7. Mr. K. Gogoi, learned counsel for the State respondents, on the other hand, submits that the subjects, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics, all belong to the Non-Technical stream, along with Humanities, Commerce and English etc. He submits that there are only two streams in the various Polytechnics and Engineering Colleges of Assam, i.e., Technical and Non-Technical. The Technical Stream consist of those subjects providing Engineering degrees and the remaining subjects are all included within the Non-Technical stream.

8. Mr. K. Gogoi also submits that the present case is covered by the judgment and orders passed by this Court in WP(C) Nos. 159/2025 and 8073/2019, which have been upheld by the Division bench of this Court in WA Nos. 49/2025 and 47/2025 respectively. As such, the writ petition should be dismissed.

9. I have heard the learned counsels for the parties.

10. As can be seen from the submissions made by the learned counsels for the parties and from the pleadings, the writ petitioners are all engaged on contractual basis as Guest/Part-time Lecturers/A