The main legal point established in the judgment is that the actions of the authorities must comply with the statutory provisions, and failure to do so renders the actions illegal and invalid.

Dr. B. S. Chauhan and Dilip Gupta, JJ.—This Special Appeal has been filed against the interim order dated 27.7.2004 passed by a learned Judge of this Court in Writ Petition No. 27700 of 2004. While entertaining the petition, the Court had granted time to the respondents to file a counter-affidavit and also directed that in the meanwhile status quo with regard to the service of the petitioners and respondent No. 6 as prior to the passing of the impugned order dated 1.7.2004 shall be maintained and they shall be permitted to continue to work if they were already working prior to that date. It was further ordered that the question regarding payment of their salary shall be considered on the next date. The petition was directed to be listed in the week commencing 31st August, 2004.

2. The writ petition, out of which the present special appeal arises, had been filed for quashing the order dated 1.7.2004, passed by the Joint Director of Education, Agra, by which he had declined to grant approval to the appointments of the petitioners on the post of Assistant Teacher in the L. T. grade in the Chaharwati Inter College, Akola, district Agra (hereinafter referred to as the ‘College’). By the same order, the Joint Director of Education had granted approval to the appointment of respondent No. 6-appellant on the post of Assistant Teacher in the L. T. grade in the College. A perusal of the records indicates that to fill up the short-term vacancies to the post of Assistant Teacher an advertisement was issued in the Daily newspapers in October/November, 1995. The writ petitioners, namely, Sahab Singh and Lakhan Singh claim to have been appointed as Assistant Teachers in the L.T. grade on 20.11.1995, by the Committee of Management through the Manager Sri Chhiddi Singh while Kaptan Singh (Appellant-Respondent No. 6) and another teacher, namely, Suresh Singh claim to have been appointed as Assistant Teacher in the L. T. grade by the Committee of Management through the Manager Sri Chandan Singh Verma by appointment letters of the same date i.e., 20.11.1995. The papers relating to the appointments of Sahab Singh and Lakhan Singh were sent to the District Inspector of Schools, Agra, for granting approval but the District Inspector of Schools, Agra, declined to grant approval by means of the order dated 27.1.1996. These two teachers filed two writ petitions in this Court being Writ Petition Nos. 4114 of 1996 and 4115 of 1996, which were disposed of on 7.2.1996 with a direction to the Deputy Director of Education to decide the matter. The Deputy Director of Education by an order dated 26.11.1996, refused to grant approval as a result of which another writ petition being Writ Petition No. 5381 of 1977 was filed by Sahab Singh and Lakhan Singh to challenge this order. The writ petition was allowed on 6.1.2003 and the matter was directed to be reconsidered by the District Inspector of Schools, Agra.

3. The District Inspector of Schools, Agra then passed an order dated 1.5.2003 refusing to grant approval to the appointment of these two teachers. This order was, therefore, challenged by the petitioners before this Court in Writ Petition No. 23678 of 2003, which was finally disposed of on 13.1.2004 with a direction to the Joint Director of Education to take a final decision in the matter after affording opportunity to all the candidates. Pursuant to the aforesaid order, the Joint Director of Education passed the order dated 1.7.2004 which was challenged in the petition out of which the present special appeal arises.

4. A perusal of the order dated 1.7.2004 of the Joint Director of Education indicates that he considered the cases of three teachers, namely, Lakhan Singh, Sahab Singh and Kaptan Singh and also examined the comments sent by the Manager and the District Inspector of Schools, Agra. The approval to the appointment of Sahab Singh and Lakhan Singh has not been granted on the ground that Chhiddi Singh was not the Manager of the Committee of