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Pre. No. LGL. 68/2017/6

NOTIFICATION

The 11^th April, 2017

No. LGL. 68/2017/6.- The following Act of the Assam Legislative Assembly which received the assent of the Governor on 6th April, 2017 is hereby published for general information.

to provincialise the services of the teachers of the Venture Educational Institutions and also to re-organise and streamline the Educational Institutions up to degree level in the State of Assam.

Preamble:- Whereas it is expedient to provincialise the services of the teachers of the Venture Educational Institutions and also to re-organise and streamline the Educational Institutions up to Degree Level in Assam so as to conform to the prevailing statutory norms and standards with a further objective to restrict any further growth of such Venture Educational Instituti

S.1 Short title, extent and commencement

1 Short title, extent and commencement:- (1) This Act may be called The Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-Organisation of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017.

(2) It extends to the whole of Assam.

(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of the Act or for different category of educational institutions.

S.2 Definitions

2 Definitions:- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) "Assam Higher Secondary Education Council" or "AHSEC" means the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council constituted under the provisions of the Assam Higher Secondary Education Act, 1984 (Assam Act No. XVII of 1984)

(b) "Block Elementary Education Officer" means the Block Elementary Education Officer in the concerned Block;

(c) "Board of Secondary Education, Assam" or "SEBA" means the Board of Secondary Education, Assam constituted under the provisions of the Assam Secondary Education Act, 1961 (Assam Act No. XXV of 1961)

(d) "Base School" means either an existing provincialised or a Venture Educational Institution identified for the purpose of provincialisation of services of teachers and/or tutors, as the case may be, within the radius of 1 km in case of Lower Primary schools, within the radius

S.3 Eligibility criteria for selection of educational institution for provincialisation of services of teachers/tutors

3 Eligibility criteria for selection of educational institution for provincialisation of services of teachers/tutors:- (1) Subject to the provisions of Article 30 of the Constitution of India, the following categories of Venture Educational Institutions shall be eligible for being considered for provincialisation of the services of their teachers and tutors:-

(i) The Venture Educational Institutions which have been established and had obtained the required permission, recognition, affiliation, concurrence, as the case may be, up to the last and highest class required for the concerned institution from the respective competent Authority or Authorities on or before 1.1.2006:

Provided that the order for such permission, recognition, affiliation, concurrence etc. shall have to be issued on or before 01.01.2006 and any order issued thereafter with any retrospective effect, shall not be considered for the purpose of pr

S.4 Teachers and/or tutors to be government servants

4 Teachers and/or tutors to be government servants:- (1) Subject to fulfillment of all other provisions of this Act, the services of the teachers and/or tutors of all Venture Educational Institutions eligible under section 3 shall be deemed to have been provincialised on the date of publication of the provincialisation order by Notification in the Official Gazette and they shall become employees of the State Government with effect from such date.

(2) The teachers and/or tutors to be provincialised under this Act,-

(i) must have been working as a teacher in the concerned Venture Educational Institution that have been fully recognized up to the last and highest class required for such Institution by the competent authority on or before 01.01.2006;

(ii) must have minimum educational and professional qualifications as laid down under different Acts, Rules and Regulations as mentioned under sect

S.5 Land, building etc to vest with the Government

5 Land, building etc to vest with the Government:- (1) With effect from the date of provincialisation of the services of the teachers and/or tutors of the Venture Educational Institutions under this Act, the land, building and other assets of the concerned educational institution shall vest with the Government.

(2) In case of merger/or amalgamation of one educational institution with other educational institution, the land, building and other assets vacated by any such merged educational institution shall be used by the Government for other suitable purpose whatsoever.

S.6 Education and Professional qualification of teacher

6 Education and Professional qualification of teacher:- (1) The services of teachers in a Venture Educational Institution from the Primary level up to the Degree Level, shall be considered for provincialisation in the post of teachers or relevant teaching faculty in appropriate nomenclature, as the case may be, subject to fulfillment of the eligibility criteria relating to educational and professional qualifications as laid down under the following Acts, Rules and Regulations:-

(a) The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (Central Act No. 35 of 2009) and its Rules;

(b) The National Council for Teachers Education Act, 1993 (Central Act No. 73 of 1993) and its Regulations in force at the time of provincialisation of services.

(c) The Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised) Service Rules, 2003, as amended in 2012;

(d) The University Grants Commis

S.7 Educational and Professional qualification of tutor

7 Educational and Professional qualification of tutor:- (1) The tutor must acquire the prescribed educational and professional qualifications within a period of five years from the date of publication of the order of provincialisation of services of the teachers and or tutors of the concerned Venture Educational Institutions in the Official Gazette and after acquirement of required qualification, they shall be upgraded to the post of teacher in appropriate cadre.

(2) If such tutor fail to acquire such prescribed qualifications within a period of five years from the date of publication of the order of provincialisation in the Official Gazette, their cases shall not be considered for up-gradation to the post of teacher after the lapse of a period of five years from the date of publication of provincialisation order in the Official Gazette and they shall continue to function as tutor as per same terms and conditions which were applicable to

S.8 Terms and conditions of service

8 Terms and conditions of service:- (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act and the Rules made hereunder all rules including service rules and rules of conduct and discipline which are applicable to State Government servant of corresponding ranks, shall be applicable to all teachers of educational institution whose services have been or to be provincialised under the provisions of this Act.

(2) The teachers whose services have been provincialised under this Act shall get full scale of pay and such emoluments as salary and allowances as per norms of the State Government applicable to the employees of the corresponding rank with effect from the date of provincialisation of their services, as if they are fresh appointees and they cannot claim any benefit whatsoever in respect of past services rendered by them before provincialisation and in respect of pension, they shall be governed by the New Pension Scheme applicable to the State Govern

S.9 Management of the educational institution where services of teachers are provincialised

9 Management of the educational institution where services of teachers are provincialised:- With effect from the date of publication of the notification under sub-section (1) of section 4, the administration, management and control of all provincialised educational institutions coming within the purview of this Act shall vest in the State Government.

S.10 Managing committee in respect of primary/upper primary schools

10 Managing committee in respect of primary/upper primary schools:- The constitution, composition, powers, functions and duties of the Managing Committee in respect of the Primary and Upper Primary Schools shall be governed by the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (Central Act No. 35 of 2009) and the rules made there under.

S.11 Managing committee/governing body in respect of other educational institutions

11 Managing committee/governing body in respect of other educational institutions:- (1) The State Government or an officer authorized by the State Government not below the rank of a District Elementary Education Officer in case of Elementary Schools or the Inspector of schools of the District in case of High School, High Madrassa, Higher Secondary School by order passed in that behalf shall constitute a Managing Committee in respect of High School, High Madrassa or Higher Secondary School and a Governing Body in respect of a Junior College.

(2) The State Government or an Officer authorized by the State Government not below the rank of the Director of Higher Education, in case of Degree College, shall constitute a Governing Body in respect of a Degree College.

(3) The Governing Body and the Managing Committee, as the case may be, of such institutions shall exercise such powers and shall perform such functions as spe

S.12 Amalgamation/merger and shifting or expansion of educational institution

12 Amalgamation/merger and shifting or expansion of educational institution:- (1) In appropriate cases, if there is already an existing educational institution nearby, and the enrolment of the students do not justify for more than one institution in the same locality, or there are other sufficient reasons so to do, the State Government, in the public interest and for reasons to be recorded in writing may, order for transfer or shifting of the institution and the incumbents of the institution from one place to another, or may order amalgamation or merger of two or more existing institutions as per Siksha Khetra Scheme.

(2) In appropriate cases, if the State Government is of the view that an existing educational institution needs be expanded so as to have more classes, the State Government may, by order, make expansion of an existing educational institution from Primary to Upper-Primary and from Upper-Primary to Secondary and Secondary to

S.13 District Scrutiny Committee and State Level Scrutiny Committee

13 District Scrutiny Committee and State Level Scrutiny Committee:- (1) There shall be District Scrutiny Committees in each district separately for Elementary, Secondary and for Higher Education to scrutinize service records and other related issues of the serving teachers of Venture Educational Institutions pertaining to provincialisation of their services.

(2) The Deputy Commissioner of the District, by an order, shall constitute the District Scrutiny Committee for the respective district under preceding sub-section:

Provided that in case of newly created districts, the Deputy Commissioner of the erstwhile district with the help of Deputy commissioner of the newly created district shall scrutinize all cases of entire erstwhile district.

(3) The District Scrutiny Committee for Higher Education shall be constituted with the following members, namely:-

(i) The Deputy C

S.14 Appellate authority

14 Appellate authority:- The State Level Scrutiny Committee shall be the appellate authority against any recommendation of the District Scrutiny Committee and the State Government in the concerned administrative department shall be the Appellate Authority against any recommendation of the State Level Scrutiny Committee.

S.15 Educational institution not provincialised to function as private/non-government institutions

15. Educational institution not provincialised to function as private/non-government institutions:- (1) The services of teachers of the Venture Educational Institutions which have been established on or after 1-1-2006, shall not be provincialised and no such educational institution shall be allowed to remain functional unless it has obtained,-

(i) affiliation from the affiliating University, if it is a Degree College; .

(ii) permission under the provisions of the Assam Non-Government Educational Institutions (Regulation and Management) Act, 2006 (Assam Act No. IV of 2007) in case of all other educational institutions; and

(iii) certificate of recognition from the authority notified under the provisions of section 18 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (Central Act No. 35 of 2009)

(2) All such Venture Educational Institutions which have

S.16 Offences and Penalties

16 Offences and Penalties:- (1) Whoever provides misleading, incorrect or false information to and suppresses material information from or abets the providing or suppression of such information to the District Scrutiny Committee or to any other authority under this Act shall commit an offence under this Act which shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years.

S.17 Offences to be cognizable and non-bailable

17 Offences to be cognizable and non-bailable:- Offences committed under this Act shall be cognizable and Central non-bailable under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Central Act No. 2 of 1974)

S.18 Trial of cases

18 Trial of cases:- (1) Offences under section 17 shall be triable by a Judicial Magistrate of the competent Jurisdiction under the of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Central Act No. 2 of 1974 (Central Act No.2 of 1974)

(2) Cases under this section shall be tried summarily under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

S.19 Suit and proceedings

19 Suit and proceedings:- (1) No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie for anything in good faith done under this Act, except with the previous sanction of the State Government.

(2) To adjudicate disputes for redressal of grievances relating to the teaching staff of the Non-Government Educational Institution as well as disputes concerning disciplinary action, genuineness of establishment of school and claim for provincialisation in respect of teaching staff of Venture Educational Institution, there shall be an Educational Tribunal for each district within their respective Territorial Jurisdiction. The District and Sessions Judges and the Additional District and Sessions Judges of each District are designated as Educational Tribunal.

S.20 personal post and maintenance of reservation policy

20 personal post and maintenance of reservation policy:- (1) If any difficulty arises in interpretation of any provisions of this Act, the interpretation of the State Government shall be final.

(2) If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this Act, the State Government may, by order do anything not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act and the rules framed there under, which appear to be necessary or expedient for the purpose of removing the difficulty.

S.21 Creation of personal post and maintenance of reservation policy

21 Creation of personal post and maintenance of reservation policy:- (1) For the purpose of provincialisation of services of the teachers and tutors under this Act, the Government shall create and sanction such number of ex-cadre posts which shall be personal to the incumbents. These personal posts shall stand abolished on cessation of the services of the teachers for any reason whatsoever including retirement, resignation, death etc. Since these are personal as well as ex-cadre posts, the present cadre strength of the concerned service shall not be impacted in any way due to creation of these posts.

(2) The Administrative Department may retain the posts of any Educational Institution provincialised under this Act, after cessation of the services of the teachers which may be deemed to be necessary to run the institution.

(3) The posts so retained as Per sub-section (2), shall be en-cadred in appropriate cadre and s

S.22 Creation of fund

22 Creation of fund:- The State Government shall create a special pool of fund to facilitate implementation of the provisions of this Act in consultation with the Finance Department of the Government of Assam in due course of time.

S.23 Power to make rules

23 Power to make rules:- (1) The State Government may, by notification published in the Official Gazette, make rules for carrying out the provisions of this Act.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions, such roles may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:-

(i) prescribing service conditions and specifying the duties and responsibilities of all teachers whose services have been provincialised under this Act;

(ii) preparation and maintenance of service records of the teachers whose services have been provincialised;

(iii) for management of the educational institutions;

(iv) specifying the powers, duties and responsibilities of the Managing Committee or Governing Body of the educational institutions;

(v) prescribing the scope of work, emoluments and remuneration, and other ter

S.24 Repeal and saving

24 Repeal and saving:- The Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011 (Assam Act No. XVII of 2011) as amended vide the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) (Amendment) Act, 2012 (Assam Act No. XXI of 2012) and the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Assam Act No. Read more document