By the Court.—Both these writ petitions involve common question of law and fact and, therefore, have been heard together and are being decided by this common judgment. However, for the purpose of narration of facts, writ petition No. 28777 of 2007 has been taken as leading case.

2. The petitioners, who were holding the office of Head of Department in various disciplines in Deen Dayal Upadhyaya University Gorakhpur (hereinafter referred to as "the University") have approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, aggrieved by the order dated 20.6.2007 passed by the University, appointing some other teachers as Head of Department, replacing the petitioners, applying rotational system, pursuant to the Government Order dated 24.7.2001 and Executive Councils decision dated 23.8.2001.

3. The facts in brief, giving rise to the present dispute are, that, all the petitioners are senior most teachers/professors in various departments of the University as detailed below :

S.N Name Head of Department of

1. Prof. Smt. Kalawati Shukla Botany

2. Prof. Shiv Shankar Geography

3. Prof. Anirudh Prasad Law

4. Prof. Kaushal Kumar Zoology

5. Prof. Afga