S.J. Mukhopadhaya

1. As in all the appeals and writ petition, common questions of law are Involved, relating to appointment to the posts of Primary Teachers in Nationalized Primary Schools, they have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. In pursuance of an advertisement, published by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission, Ranchi (hereinafter to be referred as JPSC), all the appellants/ petitioners applied for appointment to the posts of Primary Teachers; most of them were declared successful by the JPSC but they have not been appointed on the ground that they do not possess the requisite qualifications i.e. decree/diploma/ certificate of teachers training from an institute, recognized by the National Council for Teachers Education (hereinafter to be referred as NCTE).

3. In fact, after selection of the candidates, the JPSC recommended the names of the selected candidates on the condition that appointment letter(s) should be issued only after proper verification of the certificates, relating to academic, training and other qualifications as also the caste certificates etc. One of the questions raised was "whether the Institution(s)/University(s), which has/have issued training certificate(s), is/are recognized or not". The Human Resources Development (Primary and Secondary Education) Department, Government of Jharkhand Ranchi issued clarification by way of guidelines vide Memo No. 2912 dated 13th November, 2002, followed by Letter No. B-1-423/03-404 dated 16th February, 2004 to identify the recognized Institutes/Degree/Diploma/Certificates. Being dissatisfied with the same, different writ petitions, including W.P.(S) No. 588 of 2004 (Suresh Kumar and Ors. v. State of Jharkhand and Ors.), were preferred by the appellants along with others. They were heard together by the learned Single Judge, who by a common judgment dated 4th March, 2004, held that no direction can be given to the respondents to appoint the writ petitioners on the basis of Teachers Training Certificates, issued by unrecognized and private Institutions, who have conducted the examinations at their own and have declared the results. All the writ petitions were dismissed with the aforesaid observations.

4. Some other similar writ petitions, preferred by some of the appellants, were subsequently dismissed, following the decision of the learned Single Judge, passed In Suresh Kumar and Ors. (supra).

Question of law :

5. The main questions of law, involved in the present cases, are.

(i) Whether the expression "recognized training institute", as mentioned in Rule 3(kha) of the Jharkhand Primary School Recruitment Rules, 2002 (hereinafter to be referred as Rules, 2002) means a Training Institute/University, recognized by NCTE or by a Statutory/Regulating Body or by any Government?

(ii) Whether Teachers Training Degree/Diploma/Certificate, obtained by the appellants/petitioners, have been granted by a recognized Training Institute/University, as occurring in Rule 2(kha) of Rules, 2002?

(iii) Whether the Degree/Diploma/ Certificate of Acharyar granted by Kamesh-war Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Darbhanga, Bihar, Laxmi Devi Sarraf Adarsh Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, Jharkhand, Ranchi; Certificate of Guidance (C.I.G. for short), granted by Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi; Moallim-E-Urdu, granted by Jamia Urdu, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh; Shiksha Alankar", granted by Rashtriya Patrachar Sansthan, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, are equivalent to Degree/Diploma/Certificate of Teachers Training?

Relevant common facts of all the cases :

6. The JPSC issued an advertisement in different newspapers in the month of August, 2002, inviting applications from the eligible candidates for filling up the posts of Primary Teachers in Nationalized Primary Schools. In the said advertisement, apart from district-wise vacancies, necessary educational qualifications i.e. (i) Matriculate or equivalent and (ii) Two Years Teachers Training or B.Ed.