- (1.) While dealing with a writ petition filed by two Junior Engineers in the Rural Engineering Department at Aligarh, a Division Bench of this Court, finding itself not to be in agreement with an earlier decision rendered on 10 May 2013 in Raj Kishore Pandey & Anr Vs State of U P, Writ-A No 29640 of 2012 referred the following questions for resolution by the Full Bench: "(i) Whether the Division Bench in its judgment dated 10.5.2013 has rightly proceeded to observe that the degrees through off-campus centres in relation to the disputed Universities referred to hereinabove have been validated as per the Government Order dated 4.3.2013 and are duly recognized in law, and if not, then whether the Division Bench was correct in upholding the degrees as recognized on the basis of the said Government Order? (ii) Whether the Government Order dated 4.3.2013 amounts to validating such degrees that are otherwise invalid in view of the communications of the University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education? (iii) Whether the view taken by the Division Bench without assessing the validity of such degrees can be said to be justified only on the mere recital contained in the Government Order dated 4.3.2013? (iv) Whether the Government Order by itself is a valid executive instruction proceeding to cancel an administrative communication with one of the contenders on 1.1.2010, and if not then whether the view expressed by the Division Bench upholding the same can be said to be valid in law?"
(2.) Raj Kishore Pandey, in whose writ petition the judgment of the earlier Division Bench was rendered on 10 May 2013 is, in fact, impleaded as the fourth respondent to these proceedings. In order to appreciate the background in which the reference has been made, a brief statement of the material facts would be necessary.
(3.) The petitioners are Junior Engineers who claim to have obtained their Bachelor of Engineering degrees from the Aligarh Muslim University. The petitioners were employed as Junior Engineers in the Rural Engineering Department at Aligarh. Under the Service Rules as they prevailed at the material time, 8.33 percent of the promotional posts were reserved for those Junior Engineers who had obtained valid degrees from a recognised institution on the first day of the recruitment year. The petitioners claimed to be qualified for promotion on the post of Assistant Engineers against the aforesaid 8.33 percent quota. By a letter dated 29 May 2012, a list of names was forwarded to the Special Secretary in the Rural Engineering Department including the names of the petitioners as being eligible for promotion on the post of Assistant Engineers. The fourth respondent filed a writ petition claiming that he was eligible for promotion on the post of Assistant Engineer but his case was not considered on the basis of an order dated 1 January 2010 of the State Government. The order dated 1 January 2010 was issued by the Joint Secretary in the Minor Irrigation and Rural Engineering Service in the form of a communication to the General Secretary of the Diploma Engineering Sangh in pursuance of a letter dated 30 June 2009. The subject matter of the communication related to the legality of degrees obtained from two Universities namely (i) JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth; and (ii) IASE Deemed University, Rajasthan. The communication dated 1 January 2010 indicated that the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had clarified that it had not granted any permission to the two Universities for conducting the B Tech Degree Course. Subsequently, on 4 March 2013, the Principal Secretary to the State Government addressed a communication to the Director and Chief Engineer of the Rural Engineering Department. By the communication, it was stated that AICTE by a letter dated 17 May 2010 had clarified and subsequently reiterated in a disclosure of information under the Right to Information Act 2005 that there was no necessity for AICTE to grant its approval to Universities in respect of faculties/courses. On this foundation, the Principal Secretary stated that the earlier communication dated 1 January 2010 was being withdrawn and that consequential service benefits should not be withheld from the Junior Engineers who had B Tech Degrees from the aforesaid two institutions.;