By the Court.—The State, through its officers of the Basic Education Department is in appeal, defending its action of declaring the alleged appointment of about 283 Assistant Teachers in Primary Schools, who were possessed of B.Ed. (Correspondence course) qualifications as illegal, and to prevent them from claiming any continuance as Assistant Teachers or consequential benefits including payment of salary.

2. All three appeals have been heard together as they arise out of the judgment of a learned Single Judge in Writ Petition No. 20031 of 1999 dated 22.4.2009 followed by another learned Single Judge in two petitions being Writ Petition No. 20061 of 1999 and Writ Petition No. 20354 of 1999 giving rise to these appeals.

3. The common ground of challenge in all the writ petitions before the learned Single Judge was that the order dated 17.4.2009 passed by the District Basic Education Officer, Etah whereby general directions had been issued not to give effect to the alleged appointment orders of the respondents-writ petitioners in all the three appeals is unlawful. It was urged by the respondents-writ petitioners that the said order had been passed without any notice or opportun