Hon'ble Dr. KOTHARI, J.--'Salute the Teachers', used to be Indian ethos and culture in olden times. Sounds hollow now? Yes! If the controversy thrown up for consideration in the present set of cases raised by impugned action of "State" is to be taken as a prism or audio meter to look or chant again the aforesaid beautiful Sanskrit Shlok.

2. "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan", S.S.A. an ambitious and flagship Project launched by the Government of India for achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) within the time frame as mandated by the 86th Amendment to the Constitution making free and compulsory education to the children of 6-14 years of age group a fundamental right under the Constitution of India. The said Project SSA is being implemented in partnership with the State Governments of the Country to address the need of about 192 million children and the programme seeks to open new schools for those habitants, who do not have school facilities and strengthen the present school system through provisions of rooms, toilets, drinking water, maintenance, improvement in the existing schools with inadequate teacher strength are to be provided with additional teachers adding capacity to the existing teachers and the capacity of teaching method is being strengthened by extensive training. The said Project of SSA seeks to provide quality elementary education with special focus to girls education and children with special needs.

3. 'Kastoorba Gandhi Balika Vidhyalaya' (KGBV for short) is a Scheme launched in July 2001 for setting up residential schools at Upper Primary School for girls belonging predominantly to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, OBC and minority communities. The Scheme is being implemented in educationally backward blocks of the Country where the female rural literacy is below the national average and gender gap in literacy is above the national average. The Scheme provides for minimum reservation of 75% of the scats for girls belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and Minority Communities and priority for the remaining 25% is accorded to girls from families below poverty line. The said Scheme is being implemented by the funds provided by the Government of India in 27 States and Union Territories of the Country and Rajasthan is one of them. The said KGBV Scheme was merged with the SSA under the 11th Plan.

4. The petitioners in the batch of writ petitions, vide details given in the Schedule, and large number of them in joint writ petitions before this Court are the teachers, who were appointed as such under fixed term contract of service through private placement agencies on various dates in the year 2007 to 2010 and these teachers have approached this Court against the threatened termination of their contract of service, though the Project of SSA including KGBV continues, because of change of placement agencies to be appointed by the respondent State Government, who are so appointed after inviting tenders on yearly basis.

5. These petitioner-teachers, who have worked as teachers in the said Project of SSA for one year or more either appointed through the same placement agency or if they were lucky enough even through the second placement agency, which got such contract in the next year, thus some of the petitioners have given continued for more than two years in such service and now again with the fresh tenders invited to change the placement agency, the petitioners apprehending their termination of service by the previous placement agency have filed the present writ petitions.

6. Reply to the writ petitions have also been filed in some of the petitions and some contempt petitions have also been filed by some of the petitioners against the alleged violation of interim protection order granted to some of the petitioners by this Court against their apprehended termination from service and by this common order the Court proposes to dispose of these writ petitions as well as contempt petitio