Johirul Islam and 8 Ors v. The State of Assam and 5 Ors

ORDER

17-03-2023 Heard Mr. Saidul Islam, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr. B. Kaushik, learned Standing Counsel, Department of School (Elementary) Education, Assam for the respondent Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6. Also heard Mr. G. Bokolial, learned Government Advocate, Assam for the respondent No.3. 2) Petitioners are the Guardians of the students of Badlapara Lower Primary School, Baniamari Part-VI village in the Bilasipara Education Block of District-Dhubri having DISE Code No.18020433602 of the year 2019. 3) Said L.P. School was managed by two Teachers, namely, Abdul Baten and Page No.# 4/6 Santesh Ali Sheikh. 4) While submitting the report under Section 3 (1) (xi) of the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-organisation of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017 in the format for provincialisation of service of the teaching staff of said L.P. School, the District Scrutiny Committee (Elementary), Dhubri in proper format recommended the names for provincialisation of services of those two Teachers of said Badlapara L.P. School as Tutors specifying that the provincialised Base School is 1334 No. Piajbari J B School, which is situated at about 1.5 Kms away from said Badlapara L.P. School and that the pupil teacher ratio is 55:1 as it has 198 students from Class - I to Class - V. 5) After the recommendation of the District Scrutiny Committee being approved by the State Level Selection Committee and on approval of the State Government in the Elementary Education Department, the Director of Elementary

Education,

Assam

vide

Order

No.EPD-15/Provn.- LP(Act.2017)2021/1023 dated 05.02.2021 while provincialising the service of said Abdul Baten as Tutor under the said 2017 Act, he was placed in the Base School, namely, 2409/No.B Jhorarpar L.P. School. 6) Petitioner submitted that said 2409/No.B Jhorarpar L.P. School is situated about 2 Kms away from said Badlapara L.P. School, separated by a railway line without having any crossing point, whereas, said Badlapara L.P. School is in a char area imparting Education to the local children of village Baniamari Part-VI within Makrijhara of District - Dhubri. 7) Hence, this writ petition by the petitioners to set aside the impugned decision regarding identification of 2409/No.B Jhorarpar L.P. School as the Base Page No.# 5/6 School in respect of Badlapara L.P. School. 8) It is seen that though the District Scrutiny Committee, Dhubri while recommended the names of teaching staff of said Badlapara L.P. School for provincialisation under the said 2017 Act as Tutors identifying 1334 No. Piajbari J B School, a provincialised School as the Base School, but in the order dated

05.02.2021, issued by the Director of Elementary Education, Assam, 2409/No.B Jhorarpar L.P. School has been identified as the Base School. 9) Section 14 of said 2017 Act relates to "Appellate Authority", which reads as follows- "Appellate Authority:- The State Level Scrutiny Committee shall be the appellate authority against any recommendation of the District Scrutiny Committee and the State Government in the concerned administrative department shall be the Appellate Authority against any recommendation of the State Level Scrutiny Committee." 10) The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of the Commissioner of Income Tax and Another Vs. Chhabil Dass Agarwal reported in (2014) 1 SCC 603 held that "when a statutory forum is created by law for redressal of grievances, writ petition should not be entertained ignoring said statutory provision." 11) As there is a statutory provision of appeal under the said 2017 Act, the petitioners are directed to prefer an appeal before the Secretary, Department of School Education (Elementary), Assam as provided under Section 14 of said 2017 Act as amended, forthwith for redressal of their grievances along with the certified copy of this order and a copy of this writ petition including the Annexures appended thereto before the Secretary, Department of School Education (Elementary), Assam, noted above, obtaining necessary Page No.# 6/6 acknowledgement from the said authority in that regard. 12) In the event of filing of such appeal by the petitioners before the Secretary, Department of School Education (Elementary), Assam forthwith, the said authority on due verification as well as recommendation in original shall dispose of their said appeal by a reasoned order preferably within a period of 3 (three) months from the date of receipt of the said appeal from the petitioners intimating the outcome of their said appeal. 13) With the above observation and direction, this writ petition stands disposed of. JUDGE Comparing Assistant

PageoNo.#o1/6 GAHC010042032023 ooooooo ooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooTHEoGAUHATIoHIGHoCOURTo (HIGHoCOURToOFoASSAM,oNAGALAND,oMIZORAMoANDoARUNACHALoPRADESH)o CaseoNo.o:oWP(C)/1446/2023o JOHIRULoISLAMoANDo8oORSo S/OoSOMEJoUDDIN,oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI,oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA,oP.S.- GOURIPUR,oDIST-DHUBRI,oASSAM,oPIN-783349 2:oFAYEZoUDDIN oS/OoBOSERoSK oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA oP.S.-GOURIPUR oDIST-DHUBRI oASSAMoPIN-783349 3:oNALUoSK oS/OoTALEBoALI oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA oP.S.-GOURIPUR oDIST-DHUBRI oASSAMoPIN-783349 4:oMAZNUBARoRAHMAN oS/OoBASIRoUDDINoAHMED oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA oP.S.-GOURIPUR oDIST-DHUBRI oASSAMoPIN-783349 5:oHATEMoALI oS/OoMOZIBARoRAHMAN oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA oP.S.-GOURIPUR oDIST-DHUBRI PageoNo.#o2/6 oASSAMoPIN-783349 6:oNOZRULoISLAM oS/OoSOMEJoUDDIN oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA oP.S.-GOURIPUR oDIST-DHUBRI oASSAMoPIN-783349 7:oSHAJAHANoALI oS/OoAKRAMoALI oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA oP.S.-GOURIPUR oDIST-DHUBRI oASSAMoPIN-783349 8:oSIDDIQUEoAHMED oS/OoBASIRoUDDINoAHMED oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA oP.S.-GOURIPUR oDIST-DHUBRI oASSAMoPIN-783349 9:oABDULoMATIN oS/OoBASIRoUDDINoAHMED oVILL-BANIAMARIoPT.oVI oP.O.-MAKRIJHORA oP.S.-GOURIPUR oDIST-DHUBRI oASSAMoPIN-78334o VERSUSo THEoSTATEoOFoASSAMoANDo5oORSo REPRESENTEDoBYoTHEoPRINCIPALoSECRETARYoTOoTHEoGOVERNMENToOF ASSAM,oSCHOOLoEDUCATIONoDEPARTMENT,oDISPUR,oGHY-6 2:THEoDIRECTORoOFoELEMENTARYoEDUCATION oASSAMoKAHILIPARA oGUWAHATI-19 3:THEoADDITIONALoDEPUTYoCOMMISSIONER o-CUM-oCHAIRMANoDISTRICToLEVELoCOMMITTEEoFORoSELECTIONoOFo BASEoSCHOOLoDHUBRI oASSAMoPIN-783301 Page No.# 3/6 4:THE INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS DHUBRI DISTRICT CIRCLE -CUM- MEMBER SECRETARY DISTRICT LEVEL COMMITTEE FOR SELECTION OF BASE SCHOOL DHUBRI ASSAM PIN-783301 5:THE DISTRICT ELEMENTARY EDUCATION OFFICER -CUM-MEMBER DISTRICT LEVEL COMMITTEE FOR SELECTION OF BASE SCHOOL DHUBRI ASSAM PIN-783301 6:THE BLOCK ELEMENTARY EDUCATION OFFICER BILASIPARA DHUBRI ASSAM PIN-78330 Advocate for the Petitioner : MD H R AHMED Advocate for the Respondent : SC, ELEM. EDU BEFORE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANASH RANJAN PATHAK