RAM VIJAY KUMAR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This special leave petition relates to recruitment of Assistant Teachers in Elementary/primary Schools in the State of Bihar. The said recruitment was made on the basis of an advertisement issued on 8/10/1991. The petitioners in this special leave petition are persons who possess teaching qualifications obtained from government/private Teachers' Training institutions. They had filed a writ petition in the High court assailing the process of selection by the Bihar public service commission (hereinafter referred to as "the Commission"). The grievance was that the selection was made on district wise basis and the persons who had applied from a particular district were treated as applicants and aspirants for appointment to the posts in that particular district only. The said writ petition has been disposed of by the High court by the impugned judgment dated 26/9/1996. The High court has held that the eligible candidates have a right of consideration for their appointment in any one or other district cadre of Assistant Teachers and the state could not force a person to confine his application for a particular district cadre at the time of application. But keeping in view the facts and circumstances, the High court has not set aside the impugned selection and the appointments made on the basis of such selection.

(2.) We have heard Shri Shanti Bhushan, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners, Shri Rakesh Dwivedi, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the State of Bihar and Shri Kapil Sibal, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Commission.

(3.) It appears that selection was made for nearly 25,000. 00 posts. According to the figures given by the State of Bihar in the affidavit dated 14/8/1997 filed by Shri Deepak Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Education, government of Bihar, total number of 19,700 candidates were selected and recommended for appointment by the Commission and out of these 19,272 persons have been appointed as Assistant Teachers in various schools. The number of trained teachers in the cadre of Assistant Teachers thus appointed is 1991, while the number of untrained teachers is 17,281. It would thus appear that out of the 25,000. 00 posts for which selection was made about 6000 posts remain to be filled. Some of these posts will have to be set apart for candidates belonging to reserved categories.