Provincialisation of services under the Assam Venture Institutions Act requires compliance with statutory procedures, and cannot be deemed without a final decision from the State Government, especially after the Act was declared unconstitutional.

JUDGMENT AND ORDER :

1. Heard Mr. R Ali, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. B Kaushik, learned counsel for the Secondary Education Department.

2. The petitioners’ case in brief is that that the people of Baramboi and nearby villagers established the Ketekibari High School in the year 1987 to impart education to the children of the villagers. The Managing Committee appointed the Headmaster and other teaching and non-teaching staff, which was approved by the Inspector of Schools. The School obtained opening permission on 06.12.1989 from the Deputy Secretary, Government of Assam, Education Department and got recognition on 22.05.2007 from the Secretary, Board of Secondary Education, Govt. of Assam. The School fulfilled all criteria which was required for provincialisation. As such, the petitioners were getting financial assistance from the Govt. of Assam.

3. The Govt. of Assam decided to provincialise all the venture schools under the Assam Venture Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011 and directed the concerned Schools to submit all relevant documents before the authority to scrutinize the same. Accordingly, the petitioners submitted all the required documents before the concerned authority, but the authority declared the petitioners school as not eligible for provincialisation, as less number of students appeared in the HSLC examination. The petitioners submitted a representation for re-examination of records. Accordingly, as per the direction of the Director of Secondary Education, the petitioners submitted all relevant documents before the authority concerned. The Inspector of Schools, Amingaon re-examined the records on 10.08.2013. After scrutiny of all documents, the Inspector of Schools submitted a report to the Director of Secondary Education, Assam. On the basis of report submitted by Inspector of School, the Director of Secondary Education, Assam declared the petitioner school as eligible for provincialisation vide notification dated 27.08.2013. Though the authority prepared a list of 466 schools for provincialisation, the Director of Secondary Education, Assam forwarded a list of only 462 schools out of 466 schools and dropped the petitioners’ school from the list of Schools to be provincialised.

4. The petitioners immediately approached the Director of Secondary Education, who sent a fresh proposal on 01.07.2014 for provincialisation. However, the Govt. of Assam provincialised 461 nos of schools on 22.09.2014, by dropping 4 schools including the petitioners’ school. As such, the petitioners again submitted representation dated 17.09.2015 for provincialisation but the same was kept pending by the authorities. As the petitioners’ representation dated 17.09.2015 for provincialisation was not being decided by the authorities, the petitioners filed WP(C) 2588/2016.

5. WP(C) 2588/2016 was disposed of with the consent of the parties, vide order dated 29.04.2016, by directing the Director, Secondary Education Department, Assam to dispose of the petitioners’ representation dated 17.09.2015, by a speaking order.

6. Consequent to the order dated 29.04.2016 passed in WP(C) 2588/2016, the Director, Secondary Education Department, Assam issued order dated 21.06.2016, stating that the services of the staff of the School could not be provincialised due to non-receipt of post sanction order from the Government and that the same would be provincialised, as soon as the post sanction order was received from the Government. The order dated 21.06.2016 issued by the Director, Secondary Education Department is reproduced herein below as follows:-

“ORDER

Seen the order dated 29.04.2016 passed by the Hon’ble Gauhati High Court in WP(C) 2588/2016 filed by Ketekibari High School under Kamrup (Rural) District.

Also seen the representation dated 17.09.2015 submitted by the Headmasters of four different High schools under Kamrup (R) District praying for provincialisation of their Schools.

The Ketekibari High School, Kamrup (