Per Aftab Alam, ACJ:

1. The State Government has come in appeal against the judgment and order, dated 16.04.2007 passed by a learned Single Judge, disposing of a large batch of writ petitions with a number of directions. Those writ petitions were filed by `Contract Lecturers (649 in number) seeking directions from the court to the concerned authorities not to discontinue their services at the end of the contract period and, further, to regularize them in service and to give them the same pay scale and other benefits as admissible to regular Lecturers.

2. Before proceeding further it will be useful to say a few words about `Contract Lecturers. As the name suggests, `Contract Lecturers are engaged by the State Government every year on contract basis to do the teaching work in different subjects in different graduate-level Colleges in the State. In this State the academic session (or it would be more accurate, perhaps, to say the classes of the first year of the three years Degree Course) commences from March 15 or (in case of very inclement weather in some years) from April 1. The session comes to end on 31 December. Before the beginning of the session every year, the State Government takes steps for engagement of Lecturers on contract basis for teaching different subjects in different colleges till the end of the session. An advertisement is issued inviting applications and selections are made without subjecting the candidates to any written test or oral interview etc. The mode of selection, as stated in the advertisement, is as follows:

"The criteria for preparation of merit list will be as under: -

i.

For academic merit 10 marks

ii.

For additional qualification of M.Phil. 01 Addl. mark

iii.

For additional qualification of Ph.D. 02 Addl. marks

iv.

Teaching experience of Govt. college/

University (One academic session of not

less than six months). 01 Addl. mark.

Note: As per SRO No: 301 of 2006 dated; 20.09.2006 NET/SLET (National Eligibility Test/State Level Eligibility Test) shall remain the compulsory requirement for appointment of lecturer for those with post-graduate degree. However, the candidates having Ph. D degree in the concerned subject is exempted from NET/SLET for Post-graduate level and undergraduate level teaching. The candidates having M.Phil degree in the concerned subject are exempted from NET/SLET for Under-graduate level teaching only."

3. A Post-graduate degree in the subject concerned with at least 55% marks is the minimum qualification. In case of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories the eligibility criterion is lowered down by 5%.

4. The selected candidates are paid a fixed sum of Rs. 8000.00 per month. In the advertisement it is clearly stated that the engagement is a purely academic arrangement; it would be for a period of ten months or till the college is closed for winter vacation whichever might happen earlier. It is further indicated that in case of candidates engaged against clear vacancies (that is to say, vacancies against sanctioned posts) the academic, arrangement would be deemed to terminate immediately on the appointment of the regular candidates or if the posts are filled up by transfer.

5. It is, thus, to be seen that in terms of the arrangement the engagement is made for a period not exceeding ten months. At the end of the term the engagement comes to an end and for the next year/session every candidate is obliged to make fresh applications and pass through the selection process on the basis of the above quoted criteria.

6. A large number of the writ petitioners had worked under this arrangement for several years without any security of service, annual increments or other benefits and it was in those circumstances that they came to this Court seeking the reliefs as stated above.

7. The Writ court examined the arrangement under which Lecturers were engaged year after year for the past several years. It roundly criticized the State Government for following a practice that it called `disastrous

Click Here to Read the rest of this document