Judgment & Order (Oral)

Heard Mr. M. J. Quadir, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Ms. D. D. Barman, learned Government Advocate for the State respondents; Mr. B. Talukdar, learned Standing Counsel, Elementary Education and Mr. H. Baruah, learned Standing Counsel, SSA.

2. By filing this writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for a direction to the respondent authorities to provincialize the service of the petitioner as Tutor at Lalacherra Garden M.E. School, which has now been merged with Janata M.E. School, in accordance with the provisions of the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Service of Teachers and Re-organization of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act of 2017").

3. The case, in brief, is that the petitioner was appointed as an Additional Assistant Teacher by an order dated 01.12.2003, at Lalacherra Garden M.E. School and he has joined on 02.12.2003. Thereafter, the petitioner was appointed as an Assistant Teacher by an order dated 15.10.2008 and by an order dated 01.05.2010, he was appointed as the Headmaster of the said school.

4. The District Scrutiny Committee, Hailakandi, in its meeting dated 31.12.2018, recommended and forwarded the name of the petitioner along with 2 (two) other teachers of Lalacherra Garden M.E. School, for provincialisation of the service in terms of the Act of 2017. The provision, particularly Section 3(i) (xi), provides that in the case of a Venture Upper Primary School, there shall be a minimum of three teachers or tutors, with at least one teacher for each of the subjects: Science, Mathematics, Social Studies and Languages.

5. The Lalacherra Garden M.E. School, in which the petitioner was appointed, has been merged with Janata M.E. School in the same locality of Hailakandi District, as per the Memo dated 05.02.2021. The services of the teachers of Science and Social Science have been provincialised, excluding the petitioner as the language teacher, by dropping his name from the provincialisation list without any justification.

6. The petitioner, aggrieved by such exclusion, filed an application before the District Elementary Education Officer, Hailakandi, on 06.02.2021, raising his grievance. The application was forwarded to the concerned authority, indicating that the name of one Faruk Ahmed Choudhury had been wrongly mentioned twice in the list for appointment, instead of the name of the petitioner.

7. The Director of the Elementary Education, vide its letter dated 24.03.2023, requested the Secretary to the Government of Assam, Department of School Education, to approve the name of the petitioner for provincialisation of his service as Tutor against the Lalacherra Garden M.E. School, which was merged with the base school Janata M.E. School, i.e., in place of Faruk Ahmed Choudhury, as the name of Faruk Ahmed Choudhury appeared inadvertently twice in the list for provincialisation. It has also been clarified that at the time of submission of the proposal to the Government, the name of the said Faruk Ahmed Choudhury had been wrongly mentioned twice in place of the petitioner, whereas the name of the petitioner was to be included at Serial No. 1. Despite such clarification, the respondent authorities have not considered the same, thereby depriving him of the provincialisation of his service as Tutor in terms of the Act of 2017.

8. Mr. M. J. Quadir, learned counsel for the petitioner, submits that there is no dispute as regards the entitlement of the petitioner for provincialisation of his service as Tutor in terms of the Act of 2017, inasmuch as, by communication dated 24.03.2023, the Director of Elementary Education, Assam, has clarified that in place of the petitioner, the name of Faruk Ahmed Choudhury has been inadvertently mentioned twice, whereas the name of the petitioner ought to have been mentioned. Therefore, the respondent authorities may be directed to consider the case of the petitioner for provincialisation of his service as