Nur Bahar Sheikh v. The State of Assam and 7 Ors

ORDER Date : 18.11.2024

Heard Mr. M. Ali, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. N.J. Khataniar, learned Standing counsel for the respondent Nos. 1, 2 and 3, being the authorities in the Elementary Education Department.

¶2The grievance of the petitioner, being sought to be addressed in this writ petition, is that the petitioner has been working as second Assistant Teacher of Page No.# 3/5 Social Science subject in the Mathakata Banachapa M.E. Madrassa. The Headmaster of the said Madrassa submitted an application on 03.06.2017 for provincialisation of services of teachers of the said Madrassa before the District Scrutiny Committee, Dhubri. The District Scrutiny Committee, Dhubri then recommended the name of the teachers of the Mathakata Banachapa M.E. Madrassa to the State Level Scrutiny Committee. The State Level Scrutiny Committee then took a final decision on the basis of recommendation of the District Scrutiny Committee and recommended the name of three Language teachers for provincialisation of their services, namely, Abdul Motin, Romjan Ali Sheikh and Abdul Mozid and thereby, deprived the petitioner from the benefit of provincialisation of his service though he is an eligible Assistant Teacher of the Madrassa. The services of Abdul Motin (respondent No. 7) and Abdul Mozid (respondent No. 8) were provincialised on 05.02.2021, but, the petitioner was denied the benefit of provincialisation. The services of the respondent No. 7, who teaches English and respondent No. 8, who teaches Hindi, have been provincialised and as such, services of three Language teachers have been provincialised in contravention of Section 3(1)(xi) of the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-organisation of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017 ('Act of 2017', for short).

¶3Mr. Ali, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that earlier the petitioner approached this Court by filing a writ petition, being WP(C) No. 4532/2021, challenging the order dated 05.02.2021, issued by the Director of Elementary Education, Assam and after hearing both the parties, this Court was pleased to dispose of the writ petition, vide order dated 02.12.2022, by directing the petitioner to prefer a statutory appeal before the Secretary, Department of School (Elementary) Education, Assam, under Section 14 of the Act of 2017, for Page No.# 4/5 redressal of his grievances. Thereafter, the petitioner had preferred an appeal on 21.06.2023, under Section 14 of the Act of 2017 before the Secretary, Department of School (Elementary) Education, Assam and thereafter, the petitioner was asked to appear in the hearing on 22.03.2024, in the office chamber of the Secretary to the Government of Assam, Department of School Education, Block-C, Third Floor, Janata Bhaban, Dispur-06, vide letter dated

18.03.2024, issued by the District Elementary Education Officer, Dhubri. Accordingly, the petitioner had appeared in the hearing on 22.03.2024, with all relevant documents. But, his appeal has not yet been disposed of and being aggrieved, the petitioner has approached this Court again by filing the present writ petition. Mr. Ali further submits that this writ petition may be disposed of by directing the Secretary, Department of School (Elementary) Education, Assam to dispose of the appeal preferred by the petitioner, dated 21.06.2023, in a time bound manner.

¶4Mr. Khataniar, learned Standing counsel for the respondents in the Elementary Education Department submits that since the petitioner has preferred an appeal and since he has also been heard on the said appeal, this writ petition may be disposed of by directing the Secretary, Department of School (Elementary) Education, Assam to dispose of the appeal preferred by the petitioner.

¶5Having considered the submissions of the learned Advocates for both the parties, and in view of the pendency of the appeal preferred by the petitioner under Section 14 of the Act of 2017, this Court is inclined to dispose of this writ petition by directing the respondent No. 1, Secretary, Department of School (Elementary) Education, Assam, to dispose of the appeal of the petitioner dated

21.06.2023, by passing a reasoned order, within a period of one month from the Page No.# 5/5 date of receipt of certified copy of this order.

¶6The petitioner shall obtain a certified copy of this order and place the same before the respondent No. 1 within a period of one week from today.

¶7In terms of above, the writ petition stands disposed of. JUDGE Comparing Assistant

PageoNo.#o1/5 GAHC010232412024 ooooooo undefined ooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooTHEoGAUHATIoHIGHoCOURTo (HIGHoCOURToOFoASSAM,oNAGALAND,oMIZORAMoANDoARUNACHALoPRADESH)o CaseoNo.o:oWP(C)/5872/2024o NURoBAHARoSHEIKHo S/O-oLATEoABDULoWAHED,oVILLAGE-oMATHAKATA,oP.O.-oJAMADARHAT,o P.S.oFAKIRGANJ,oDIST-oDHUBRI,oASSAM,oPIN-o783330 VERSUSo THEoSTATEoOFoASSAMoANDo7oORSo REPRESENTEDoBYoTHEoSECRETARYoTOoTHEoGOVT.oOFoASSAM,o DEPARTMENToOFoSCHOOLo(ELEMENTARY)oEDUCATION,oDISPUR,o GUWAHATI-6 2:THEoSTATEoLEVELoSCRUTINYoCOMMITTEE oREPRESENTEDoBYoTHEoDIRECTORoOFoELEMENTARYoEDUCATION oASSAM oKAHILIPARA oGUWAHATI-19 3:THEoDIRECTORoOFoELEMENTARYoEDUCATION oASSAM oKAHILIPARA oGUWAHATI-19 4:THEoDISTRICToSCRUTINYoCOMMITTEE oDHUBRIoFORoELEMENTARYoEDUCATION oREPRESENTEDoBYoITSoCHAIRMANoCUMoDEPUTYoCOMMISSIONERoOFo DHUBRIoDISTRICT oASSAM oPIN-o783301 5:THEoDISTRICToELEMENTARYoEDUCATIONoOFFICER oDHUBRI oDIST-oDHUBRI Page No.# 2/5 ASSAM PIN- 783301 6:THE BLOCK ELEMENTARY EDUCATION OFFICER SOUTH SALMARA DIST- DHUBRI ASSAM PIN- 783127 7:ABDUL MOTIN S/O- LATE ABDUL WAHED VILLAGE- MATHAKATA P.O.- JAMADARHAT P.S. FAKIRGANJ DIST- DHUBRI ASSAM PIN- 783330 8:ABDUL MOZID S/O- ABUL HUSSAIN VILL- BANACHAPA P.O.- JAMADARHAT P.S. FAKIRGANJ DIST- DHUBRI ASSAM PIN- 78333 Advocate for the Petitioner : MR. M ALI, H R KHAN,MR J. ISLAM Advocate for the Respondent : SC, ELEM. EDU, GA, ASSAM BEFORE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ROBIN PHUKAN