JUDGMENT

1. These three writ petitions being filed on the same cause of action and on similar facts, will be disposed of by this common judgment and order.

2. The brief facts of the case are that the writ petitioners in these petitions are stated to have been appointed by the competent authority in their respective Sub-Divisions sometime in the year 1995 to 1997, after being successful in the selection process conducted by the state respondents and on their appointment, the petitioners were posted in different schools run and managed by Religious Institutions and Minority Communities. Prior to their appointments, the State of Meghalaya for the purpose of taking over the primary schools run by the District Councils in the state, had enacted an Act known as the Meghalaya (Taking Over of the DCLP Schools) Act, 1993 which came into force on 02-06-1994. For implementation of this Act, the State Government had constituted a committee to examine the list of District Council Lower Primary (DCLP) Schools in the state, deemed to have been taken over and vest with the State Government and while constituting the said committee, 24-09-1982 was fixed as a cut-off date for calculating the length of