TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2007 (5) TMI 678
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....Advs. for Temple Law Firm, Gopal Prasad, Ajai Nand Bardiyar, Bharat Sangal and Rajesh Prasad Singh, Advs. JUDGMENT S.B. Sinha, J. 1. These appeals are directed against a judgment and order dated 02.02.2000 passed by a Division Bench of the Patna High Court disposing of the writ applications filed by the appellants herein on consent as also an order dated 23.11.2000 passed by another Bench of the said Court refusing to review the said order. 2. Appellant No. 1 is an Association of ad hoc teachers appointed in various colleges affiliated to Veer Kunwar Singh University. 3. The affairs of all the Universities situated in the State of Bihar including that of Appellant No. 1-University admittedly are governed by the provisions of the Bihar State University Act, 1976. 4. Ad hoc appointments indisputably were made by various Universities in the State of Bihar. Ad hoc teachers of Ranchi University had filed writ applications for regularization of their services, which were dismissed by the Patna High Court by a judgment and order dated 22.05.1989. A special leave petition was filed there against, which was marked as Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 11078 of 1989. A writ....
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....to the extent of service rendered by persons as ad hoc teachers. (iv) All the ad hoc teachers in service on February 10, 1989 against sanctioned posts shall continue till selection is made by the University Service Commission and they shall be paid in terms agreed for the period in which they actually worked. (v) Other ad hoc teachers who have worked till that day must also be paid. (vi) The payment shall be made within one month. 9. It is not in dispute that on an allegation that the said order had not been complied with, a contempt petition was also filed before this Court. As would be noticed hereinafter, this Court discharged the rule issued against the contemnor. 10. Appellant No. 1-University was created in the year 1992. On or about 23.11.1993, an advertisement was issued by the Bihar State University (Constituent Colleges) Service Commission for appointment of teachers in different Universities. Allegedly, at that point of time, additional posts were not sanctioned. It is furthermore not in dispute that ad hoc teachers made a representation before the Chancellor for regularization of t....
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....ent order is as under: (ii) The vacant posts shall be identified by a committee consisting of the Vice-Chancellors of the various Universities concerned with Hon'ble Mr. Justice S. Sarwar Ali (retired) as its Chairman and the Secretary, Higher Education as its Member Secretary. Within a period of four months from today, the vacant posts as on the relevant date i.e. 30th May, 1990 shall be identified by this committee. The finding of the committee on this question shall be final and shall not be challenged by any one in any proceeding. 14. Appellants were not satisfied therewith. They filed an application for review which by reason of an order dated 23.11.2000 has been dismissed. 15. Appellants are, thus, before us. 16. Various interlocutory applications by different persons have also been filed, but it is not necessary to deal therewith separately. 17. Mr. P.S. Misra, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants, inter alia, would submit that the High Court committed a manifest error in passing the impugned judgment and order dated 02.02.2000 and refusing to review its order, insofar as by reason of the consent order, it neither....
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....bsp; 8. That the Secretary, Higher Education vide his letter dated 9.7.2003 has also informed the University that the Govt. has complied the order dated 6.12.1989 as directed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. 22. Our attention has also been drawn to the Counter Affidavit filed on behalf of the State of Bihar, some relevant paragraphs whereof are as under: 8. I say that in respect of this Hon'ble Court's direction at Sl. No. 1 all the Universities were asked to report the available vacancies to the University Service Commission. 9. I say that in respect of this Hon'ble Court's direction at Sl. No. 2 Universities of the State were requested vide Department letter No. 14/MI-021/89 MA-210 dated 15.2.1990 to send proposal for creation of additional posts according to the workload by 15th March, 1990. The Universities were reminded vide letter No. 427 dated 28.4.1990 and again vide letter No. 506 dated 5.5.1990. Many more reminders were also sent. In response to these letters, proposals were received from Magadh, Ranchi and Bhagalpur Universities. Other Universities did not send any consolidated proposal for....
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....the provisions of the said Act as also the statutes framed thereunder, their appointments were illegal. 25. Applicability of the provisions of the Act and the statutes framed thereunder in the matter of recruitment to the post of teachers in constituent and affiliated colleges is not in dispute. Section 57 of the said Act reads as under: 57. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act and the statutes, the Bihar State University (Constituent Colleges) Service Commission shall, as far as may be, perform, in respect of appointment to the post of teachers and officers (other than Vice-Chancellor, Province-Chancellor and the Dean of faculty) of the University the same functions as are assigned to the State Public Service Commission in respect of the State Services under Article 320 of the Constitution of India. 26. In terms of the aforementioned provisions, thus, all sanctioned vacant posts were required to be filled up by candidates who were qualified therefore and who had been selected by the University Service Commission, which is a statutory body. Clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 58 of the said Act provides for appointment on temporary basis ....
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.... Court has also been discharged. There exists a dispute with regard to the actual number of vacancies. 32. The Respondent-University, according to the State of Bihar did not make any recommendation for creating any additional posts of teachers having regard to the teacher-student ratio. In the affidavits, the State and the Respondent-University clearly stated that there were only 55 vacant posts. Order of this Court did not say that for filling up the vacancies of one university, ad hoc teachers appointed in other universities should be considered. 33. However, in the Rejoinder Affidavit to the Counter Affidavit, it is stated: 10. That in reply to para 9 of the counter affidavit, it is most respectfully submitted that in response to the letters written by the respondent No. 5 and 6 seeking proposal for creation of additional posts, according to the workload the Ranchi, Magadh and Bhagalpur Universities sent their respective proposal for the creation of 6447 posts of teachers. It is most respectfully submitted that out of 6447 posts, the Magadh University sent a proposal for creation of 1467 posts. After the Division of Magadh University, out of 146....
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....er is fixed by the University Grants Commission. A University can ignore the directions of the University Grants Commission in this behalf only at its own peril and risk of derecognition. Neither it is permissible for a University to contravene the directions of the University Grant Commission nor, in our opinion, is it permissible for a court of law to issue a direction contrary thereto. Evidently, the endeavour on the part of the appellants and interveners herein was to obtain a direction from this Court that their cases may be considered by a Public Service Commission or in its absence by the State or by the University on the basis of a qualification held by them prior to 1993. In our opinion, no such direction at this point of time can be issued. We will assume that the State and/or Universities had failed to adhere to the time frame fixed by this Court, but even if a violation of this Court's order in that behalf had taken place, the same by itself would not lead to an inference that the respondents were still to obey the order of this Court, despite the change in law, which had taken effect in this behalf. Such a direction cannot be given at this stage in view of the deci....
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....e legal position in view of the decision in Umadevi (supra) and a large number of decisions of this Court following it. In a situation of this nature, when a subsequent event has occurred and when there exists a dispute as to whether order of this Court has substantially been complied with or not, it would not be proper for us to put the parties to the same position to which they were in 1989. 38. The practice to appoint ad hoc teachers must be deprecated. If a Government of a State or a University which is also a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India, despite the repeated observations of the superior courts of the country, continue to do so, such a practice must be condemned. 39. Directions can be issued to the State to act within four-corners of the statute and to declare any action taken in contravention thereof to be a nullity; but it would not be permissible for this Court to go beyond the provisions of the statute and issue a direction that cases of all the appellants must be considered irrespective of the fact as to whether their appointment even as ad hoc teachers was against a sanctioned post or they have been working against the non-san....