IMPORTANT POINT
[Judicial review is concerned with the legality of the decision-making process rather than the merits of the decision itself. The court emphasized the importance of timely challenges to administrative decisions.]

JUDGMENT :

Sujit Narayan Prasad, J.

Prayer

1. The instant appeal preferred under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent is directed against the order/judgment dated 28.09.2021 passed by learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(S) No.5968 of 2019 whereby and whereunder the writ petition has been dismissed by not interfering with the appointment of the private respondents.

Facts of the case

2. The brief facts of the case, as per the pleadings made in the writ proceeding, which are required to be enumerated, reads hereunder as :-

It is the case of the petitioners that an advertisement was published for the appointment on the post of Assistant Teachers in different districts of the State of Jharkhand. As per the advertisement it has been stated that 50% of the seats are required to be filled by Para teachers and the rest 50 % were to be filled with Non Para Teachers categories.

3. The petitioners who were working as para teachers in different schools different district of Jharkhand and applied for selection on the vacant post under Non-Para category.

4. It is the further case of the petitioners that this Court vide its judgment dated 23rd July, 2018 in LPA No. 172 of 2018 has allowed one Letters Patent Appeal and issued directions to consider the application of candidates of para Teachers who had applied under non-para teacher category in which they applied for the aforesaid vacancies.

5. In furtherance to the above order, a merit list for all districts was published and objection was invited. Thereafter, final merit list was to be published on 30.05.2019.

6. Subsequently, the respondents published an AAM SUCHNA clarifying their stand that the counselling will not be limited to the appellants of the LPA but they will also consider all applicants as per their merit list.

7. Thereafter, the respondents issued a letter dated 17.05.2019 whereby and where under the candidature of those candidates who have obtained higher educational degree while working on regular basis i.e, class room courses while working as a para teacher was directed to be rejected from the counselling process.

8. The further case of the petitioners is that pursuant to the AAM SUCHNA a final merit list for counselling was prepared by the respondents on 30.05.2019 and on the basis of said list counselling for the post teachers of Inter Trained, where held on 03.06.2019.

9. Pursuant to the counselling, candidature of certain persons were rejected by the respondent authorities on various grounds, such as, they had obtained Inter Degrees, on (regular basis) while being posted as Para Teachers and several others reasons.

10. After completion of the counselling process and the scrutiny, final list for appointment in the post of Inter Trained Teachers was published by the respondent authorities and appointment letters were issued in favour of the petitioners in terms of which they were appointed in the Non- Para category, in the Grade Pay of Rs.4200 and were deputed in Various schools in the District of Ramgarh.

11. On the basis of appointment letters, the petitioners gave their joining in the designated schools within the time frame as stipulated by the respondent authorities and since then they were working to the satisfaction of all concerned.

12. The petitioners worked for three months after the appointment and the service book has also been opened by the respondent authorities in terms of Rule 288 of the Jharkhand Service Code.

13. On 15.10.2019, an order was issued whereby and whereunder the appointments in the Inter Trained Teachers Class- I-V, has been cancelled by the respondent authorities on the ground of anticipation of an order by the High Court so as to keep the seats vacant for appointment if such occasion arises.

14. Now appointment letters have been issued in favour of those candidates whose candidature was earlier rejected (Annexure-5), due to various anomalies in their candidature.

15. Being aggrieved by the order dated 15.10.2019 and issuance of appointment