JUDGMENT :

1. These bunch of writ petitions involve common questions of law and fact and are thus being decided by a common order. The facts of Writ (A) No.9410 of 2022 (Dinesh Singh Vs. State of U.P. & others) is being considered for deciding the controversy involved.

2. Heard Sri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri O. P. S. Rathore, learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Standing Counsel for the State Respondents and Smt. Archana Singh, learned counsel for the Respondent No.2.

3. The challenge in this writ petition is to an order dated 25.06.2022 passed by the Secretary, Board of Basic Education, U.P., Allahabad, whereby the petitioner has been asked to submit an affidavit declaring therein that he will not claim for his seniority of service in future. A further prayer in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondent to ensure the joining of the petitioner in the newly allotted district Meerut with his seniority from 17.09.2018 i.e. first date of joining as Assistant Teacher in district Aligarh has also been claimed.

4. The fact in brief leading to the filing of the instant writ petition are that the petitioner was selected as an Assistant Teacher, Primary School against the 68500 vacant posts in pursuance to the advertisement published by the State Government vide Government Order dated 09.01.2018. The vacancies were advertised district-wise. The selection of the Assistant Teacher was to be made on the basis of Quality Point comprised of 60% of weightage on Assistant Teacher Recruitment Examination, 10% on High School, 10% on Intermediate, 10% on Graduation and 10% on training qualification. An additional weightage of 2.5 marks per completed teaching year upto a maximum 25 marks, whichever is less was made applicable to Shiksha Mitras as per U.P. Basic Education (Teachers) Services (20th Amendment) Rules, 2017. The petitioner obtained 90 marks in the ATRE-2018 and as per the existing formula secured 67.61 quality point marks.

5. The Secretary, Board of Basic Education issued an advertisement on 19.08.2018 inviting online applications from the selected candidates for appointment and also sought the preferences of districts from the candidates. The petitioner as per his quality point marks was allotted district Aligarh and he appeared before the selection committee in his allotted district. The petitioner was issued an appointment letter on 05.09.2018 by the District Basic Education Officer, Aligarh and he joined at the allotted institution i.e. Primary School, Nagla Kurawali, Development Block Gangiri, District Aligarh. Though the ARTE-2018 was conducted for 68,500 vacancies the Board of Basic Education vide Notification dated 19.8.2018 reduced the vacancies from 68500 to 41556. On account of the reduced vacancies almost 6127 candidates who had cleared the ARTE-2018 were denied selection at first place. The unselected candidates agitated the matter and the Board issued 2nd list of 6127 selected candidates and allotted them districts of their choice without considering their respective merits.

6. The writ petitioner through belonged to reserved (OBC) category but was selected against unreserved vacancy because of his higher merit and as such, is to be treated as MRC (Meritorious Reserved Category) candidate.

7. The arbitrary action of the Board of Basic Education in proceeding to allot the districts to the selected candidates as per their choice without considering their respective merits was assailed by the petitioner in Writ-A No.26132 of 2018 (Naveen Kumar and 52 others versus State of U.P and others) which was decided along with the writ petitions filed by similarly circumstanced candidates leading amongst them being Writ-A No. 19737 of 2018 (Shikha Singh & 48 others versus State of U.P. and others). The leading writ petition of Shikha Singh (supra) was disposed of vide judgment and order dated 29.8.2019 in the following terms:-

“58. In view of the law laid down by the Apex Court, the allotment of district