DIPANKAR DATTA,J. - (1.) There is a batch of five intra-court writ appeals before us, having a common genesis; hence the same were heard together. There is also an intra-court writ appeal at the instance of strangers to one of the proceedings before the writ court. An application seeking leave to file such appeal is on record. Since the strangers' appeal is directed against one of the orders which is already under challenge in the said batch of appeals, we propose to dispose of all these appeals by this common judgment and order.
(2.) The District Primary Schools Councils of Howrah, Malda, 24-Parganas (South) and 24-Parganas (North) (hereafter 'the Councils', wherever referred to jointly) in the year 2009 intended to fill up vacant posts of Assistant Teachers in primary schools within their respective jurisdiction. With that in view, due process was initiated. Advertisements were published at the instance of the Councils inviting applications from eligible candidates. The West Bengal Primary Teachers Recruitment Rules, 2001 (hereafter 'the 2001 Rules'), as it stood on the day of publication of the advertisements, were the governing rules that each of the Councils was required to abide by. Insofar as academic qualifications are concerned, rule 6 of the 2001 Rules stipulated that an aspiring candidate must have passed the School Final/Madhyamik examination conducted by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education or equivalent with training, or erstwhile Higher Secondary Examination (Class XI) conducted by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education or equivalent with training; however, a trained candidate would be entitled to extra marks in the manner prescribed under clause (d) of sub-rule (2) of rule 9. Several candidates offered their candidature. Written examinations were also conducted by the Councils whereafter panels were prepared and forwarded to the Director of School Education, West Bengal together with all relevant documents for approval. However, the panels were not approved due to detection of serious flaws in the process that was initiated. An order dated January 21, 2012 was issued by the School Education Department, Government of West Bengal (hereafter 'the said G.O.') whereby the process of selection initiated by the Councils stood cancelled; however, the Councils were permitted to restart the selection process by holding written examinations. It was indicated in the said G.O. that only those who had taken the earlier written examinations would be entitled to take the fresh written examinations. For facility of reference, the said G.O. is quoted below: No.255-SSE/12/ES/P/10M-141/2010 (Pt) dated, Kolkata, the 21st June, 2012 ORDER WHEREAS under Section 60(1) of the West Bengal Primary Education Act, 1973 (Act XI, III of 1973) it is the duty of District Primary School Council in each District to appoint Teachers of Primary Schools under the jurisdiction of the respective Council subject to the prescribed conditions; AND WHEREAS process of recruitment of Primary School Teachers against the vacancies was initiated by all District Primary School Councils in West Bengal accordingly in 2009 and most of them had completed the same; AND WHEREAS the District Primary Schools Councils of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Malda had failed to complete the recruitment process till now due to some unavoidable reasons; AND WHEREAS the Chairmen, DPSC's of North 24 Parganas, Howrah and Malda have detected serious irregularities in the recruitment examination; AND WHEREAS the aforesaid Chairmen, District Primary School Councils have informed this Department severally that the irregularities found in the recruitment process are irreparable at this point of time; AND WHEREAS the aforesaid Chairmen, District Primary School Councils have further observed that if the earlier process of recruitment of Primary School Teachers is allowed to be completed a large number deserving candidates will be prejudiced in the selection process and some under merited and undeserved candidates may be appointed which may cause serious loss to the development of Primary Education in the aforesaid four Districts and will be against the Government policy towards maintenance of transparency in the recruitment process of Primary Teachers and may accordingly cause serious public harm; NOW THEREFORE, exercise of the powers given under Section 107 of the West Bengal Primary Education Act, 1973 (Act XLIII of 1973) the Governor is pleased to order that the aforesaid recruitment examinations conducted by the District Primary School Councils of North 24 Parganas, Malda and Howrah be cancelled and directs the respective chairman of the concerned District Primary School Councils to conduct the recruitment examination de novo provided that only the eligible candidates who had applied for recruitment against the advertisement issued by the concerned District Primary School Council and had appeared in the written examination are allowed to appear in the de novo examination and so separate fees are collected from them for appearing in such examinations. No other candidates except those who were allowd to appear in the earlier recruitment examination conducted for the same purpose will be allowed to appear in the de novo written examination. The entire process must be completed and the final panel published by the respective District Primary School Councils within a period of 90 (ninety) days from the date of issue of this order. Sd/- (Vikram Sen) Principal Secretary to the Government of West Bengal
(3.) Issuance of the said G.O. resulted in a spate of litigation at the instance of candidates who had acquired eligibility, post 2009, to participate in any selection process for recruitment of Assistant Teachers in primary schools within the jurisdiction of the Councils. Interim orders were passed by learned single Judges restraining the Councils from holding the written examinations. Appeals having been carried before Division Benches, the same were disposed of with directions. It is not necessary for the present purpose to refer to the orders passed in each of such writ petitions or writ appeals, but we propose to refer to some of them which have a material bearing on the issues raised in these appeals a little later.;