- (1.) Special Appeal No. 404 of 2002, has been filed by the State of U.P. through Secretary, Education U.P. Government, Lucknow, Director, State Council of Educational Research and Training, Lucknow and the Director Basic Education, U.P., while the Special Appeal No. 365 of 2002, has been filed by District Basic Teachers Kalyan Samiti and three others after obtaining leave to appeal and the remaining special appeals have been filed by the selected candidates after obtaining leave to appeal against the judgment and order of the learned single Judge dated 21.3.2002 passed in Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 37124 of 2001, Anant Kumar Tiwari and Ors. v. State of U.P. and Ors. and other connected writ petitions, whereby the learned single Judge had allowed all the writ petitions and had quashed the Government order dated 3.8.2001, the advertisement dated 14.8.2001. Government order dated 3.12.2001 and the process of selection, pursuant thereto at whatever stage it had reached before passing of the interim order dated 9.11.2001 and 3.12.2001. The learned single Judge has held that the Government order dated 3.8.2001 and the proportion of selection in pursuance thereto at whatever stage it has reached is per se, arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India, apart from the same being contrary to the U.P. Basic Education Act, 1972 and U.P. Basic Education (Teachers) Service Rules, 1981 and cannot be upheld.
(2.) We have heard the learned Advocate General, Sri R.N. Singh, learned senior counsel assisted by Sri A.P. Shahi, Sri P. S. Baghel and Sri M. D. Singh Shekhar for the appellants and Sri Shailendra, learned counsel appearing for the respondent-writ petitioners.
(3.) Briefly stated the facts giving rise to the present special appeals are as follows : "In the primary schools run by the U.P. Basic Education Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board) in the State of U.P. for the last several years there had been a shortage of teachers, as a result of which the State Government was finding it difficult to fulfil its obligations as mandated by Article 45 of the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years. It appears that in the State of U.P., the State Government runs a training college in each district, which is at present about 70 in number, where the persons are given training in teaching and on successful completion thereof are awarded Basic Teacher's Certificate (hereinafter referred to as B.T.C.). As per the statement made by the learned Advocate General, in each of the training college, the intake is of only 100 persons in a year. Thus, only about 5,000 to 6,000 qualified B.T.C. teachers are available for being appointed as assistant teachers to teach students in primary schools run by the Board in the State of U.P. whereas the total requirement of teachers at present is more than 50,000. To fulfil its constitutional obligations, the State Government took a policy decision to impart two months' special training to those persons, who have done their B.Ed./L.T. The decision taken by the State Government, which was accorded permission by the Government manifested itself in the Government order dated 3.8.2001. It mentions that the Governor has been pleased to accord permission for the appointment of 20,000 B.Ed./L.T. qualified and selected candidates on the vacant posts of Assistant Teachers in the primary schools run by the Board after they complete two months special B.T.C. training and are found successful in the examination. The detailed procedure for making of application and selection was also prescribed by the aforementioned Government order. It provided for determination of vacancies district wise and the candidates concerned will be eligible to make an application only against the vacancies available in their home districts. A candidate shall apply only for the home district and if he makes an application for two and more districts, such application shall be rejected. No certificate was to be produced at the time of verification. No written examination was to be conducted for the selection. The criterion for the selection was the quality point marks obtained in the various examinations passed by the candidates to be determined in the manner given in the said Government order. It also provided that the selection will be made on the basis of the district wise merit list prepared on the basis of the total quality point marks. The reservation was provided in accordance with the reservation policy of the State Government. However, It was provided that care shall be taken that 50% candidates of the prescribed limit are selected from the Science group and 50% from the Arts group and besides it 50% males and 50% females will be selected in the respective categories against the prescribed number. The maximum and minimum age was fixed at 35 and 18 years as on 1st July of the year following the year of notification of vacancy with the relaxation of five years in the case of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward classes and the dependant of freedom fighters and three years in the case of ex-serviceman in the upper age limit. The selected candidates were required to undergo a two months special B.T.C. training after which they have to appear in an examination. The selected candidates will be eligible for the appointment only after passing of the examination. The candidates, who have completed special B.T.C. training successfully, shall be treated at par with B.T.C. general trained and shall be treated as eligible for appointment to the vacant posts of assistant teachers in primary schools. The said Government order also provided for appointment of the trained applicants by making provision that, who had successfully completed the training course shall be given appointment in the concerned district and in the primary schools against the limit of sanctioned post, which are located in far flung areas and where they are actually needed. The aforesaid Government order was subsequently modified by another Government order dated 20.8.2001, whereby the candidates having C.P.Ed., D.P.Ed., and B.P.Ed. training as regular students from the universities, colleges and training colleges recognised and run by the State Government, were also made eligible to put up application for special B.T.C. training besides B.Ed./L.T. candidates and the maximum age limit for special B.T.C. training was substituted by 40 years retaining the relaxation of age of 5 years and 3 years. By the Government order dated 2.8.2001, the last date of receipt of application was also changed and instead of 15.9.2001, the last date was fixed as 29.9.2001. ";