The Executive cannot apply executive orders with retrospective effect to take away vested or accrued rights. The closure of the ReT Scheme was found to be in the public interest, and the impugned Government order was held to be prospective in nature.

JUDGMENT :

1. In all these petitions clubbed together, Government Order No. 919-Edu of 2018, dated 16th November 2018 [hereinafter referred to as the “impugned order”] is under challenge. The impugned order as is apparent from its reading is passed by the Government pursuant to State Administrative Council decision No. 129/19/2018, dated 14th November 2018 to formally close Rehbar-E-Taleem (hereinafter referred to as “ReT”) Scheme as also providing for cancellation/withdrawal of all advertisement notices issued for making engagement of Rehbar-E-Taleem or the panels prepared where no engagement orders have been issued under the scheme.

2. Before we advert to the grounds of challenge urged by learned counsel appearing for the petitioners and the rebuttal by Mr. Sheikh Mushtaq, learned AAG appearing for the Union Territory of J&K, we find it apposite to allude to factual context in which the impugned order has come to be passed by the Government. With an objective to promote decentralized management of elementary education with community participation and involvement; to ensure accountability and responsiveness through a strong back up and supervision through the community; and to operationalize effectively the schooling system at the grass root revel, the Government of J&K promulgated a scheme known by the name of “Rehbar-E-Taleem” Scheme by issuing Government Order No. 396-Edu of 2000, dated 28th April 2000. ReT Scheme was conceptualized to put in place a system of decentralized management and elementary education through community participation and involvement. At the centre of the scheme was conceptualized a teaching guide to be named as ReT who was provided to be drawn from the local community so that his accountability would be immediate providing for constant interface and interaction with the community to secure universal enrolment and to check incidence of drop outs. It is in keeping with the objectives of the scheme, the job to select the ReT was entrusted to a village level community providing further that the candidate to be engaged as ReT should possess minimum qualification of 10+2 and must belong to the village where there is accessed deficiency of the staff. The scheme also provided that on satisfactory completion of five years service as ReT on honorarium basis, the candidate shall be eligible for appointment as General Line Teacher in the Education Department and would be so appointed subject to the village level community furnishing a certificate about his satisfactory performance and highlighting specific achievements of his/her overall conduct. Broadly speaking, this was in a nutshell, the scheme that was launched in the year 2000.

3. Under the ReT Scheme, the deficiency of teaching staff in various schools of the Union Territory of JK was met by appointing ReTs on honorarium basis. The selection of ReTs' was made by restricting the zone of selection to the village concerned where the deficiency was noticed and decided to be made up. In this way thousands of candidates throughout the Union Territory of J&K came to be engaged as ReTs and many of them, on completion of satisfactory service of five years as ReT were regularized and appointed as General Line Teachers. The Government having found that the objective of the ReT Scheme was accomplished, came up with Government Order No. 170-Edu of 2003, dated 24.11.2003 whereby the process of supplying the vacancies of teachers in the School through the medium of ReT Scheme was stopped forthwith and a direction was issued to follow the methodology of recruitment of ReT provided under the ReT Scheme for filling up the posts created under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for new and upgraded primary schools and EGS Centres. Same scheme was directed to be adopted for recruitment of third teacher for innovative activities in the school. The Directors of School Education Jammu and Srinagar were directed to fill- up such posts on the pattern and through the medium of ReT Scheme pr