PROTIK PRAKASH BANERJEE,J. - (1.) Three writ petitions are before me today. They raise common questions of law and fact. One of them is at the instance of the West Bengal Board of Madrasah Education, a statutory board established under the provisions of the West Bengal Madrasah Education Board Act, 1994. It has thought fit to approach this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India since the degrees awarded by Madrasahs in West Bengal, which the State of West Bengal and the Union of India, till January, 2018 admittedly considered to be equivalent to the corresponding degrees of secondary, higher secondary education and of baccalaureate and post-graduate degrees, by an executive fiat of the Department of Posts of the Union of India, has been held not to be so equivalent. The equivalence has been ordained by His Excellency the Governor of West Bengal and accepted until aforesaid by His Excellency the President of India.
(2.) I therefore find it convenient, in the presence of the writ petitioners in each case, and after recording the service on each of the respondents and the presence of the Learned Advocates for the Union of India in two these matters in the daily list, and after directing that the affidavit of service in each case be taken on record, to direct that the three writ petitions be consolidated and heard together. I request the Learned Additional Solicitor General to regularize the appointment of Mr. D.N. Ray, Learned senior government advocate for the respondent Union of India together with his Learned Junior, Mr. Biswajit Konar, Advocate, for the Union of India in the remaining writ petition also.
(3.) Mr D. N. Ray, learned senior advocate appearing for the Union of India in item nos. 5 and 6 of today's list, raised a preliminary question of maintainability. According to him, allowing the writ petition for any of the prayers shall amount to interference in the matter of recruitment in a civil post under the Union of India. He submits that by virtue of the decision rendered in L. Chandrakumar v. Union of India and Others reported in AIR 1997 SC 1125 particularly paras. 80 to 95 this court cannot act as a court of the first instance in respect of any matter which is covered by Article 323A of the Constitution. He also submits that whatever grievance that the petitioners have can be adjudicated at the first instance only by the learned Central Administrative Tribunal which is functioning. According to him, at least one of the petitioners has disclosed in AST No.22 of 2018 that other people similarly circumstanced have already approached the Central Administrative Tribunal and got the relief of applying offline. He therefore, submits that the writ court would be exceeding its jurisdiction by entertaining the matter.;