WP(C) 436/2009 BEFORE THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE AMITAVA ROY The petitioners are aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the State responden ts in attending to their repeated pleas to process their claim for direct recrui tment to the post of Junior Engineer of the Assam Public Health Engineering Depa rtment (hereafter for short referred to as the Department) in terms of Rule 11 ( 5) of the Assam Public Health Engineering Service Rule, 1996 (for short referred to as the Rule). I have heard Mr. DN Bhattacharjee, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr. R K Bora, learned State counsel, Assam for the respondents. The pleadings being complete, the learned counsel for the parties have advanced their arguments on the basis thereof. This petition is, thus, being disposed of at the admission stage. Shortly put, the petitioners’ pleaded case is that they are diploma holder Junio r Engineers in the Department and have been rendering their services for last tw o decades without any blemish. On being permitted to pursue higher studies by t he Department, they got themselves admitted in the Institute of Advance Studies in Education, Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardarshahr-331401, Rajasthan, which is a dee med University. After the completion of the course, which they passed, the said institution issued provisional certificates to that effect. Having acquired th e above degree, which the petitioners contend is one in Civil Engineering recogn ized by the Rules for direct recruitment to the cadre of Assistant Engineer in t he service, they staked their claim therefor. Their grievance is that vacancies in the aforementioned cadre notwithstanding, the departmental authorities have turned a blind eye towards their claim without any justifiable reason. Being ag grieved, the petitioners are before this Court for redress. The State respondents in their affidavit affirmed by the Under Secretary, Govern ment of Assam, Public Health Engineering Department in substance have pleaded th at though the degree acquired by the petitioners, in the opinion of the Deputy S ecretary, Higher Education, Government of Assam is acceptable for the purpose fo r which the same had been furnished by them, to obviate any complication in futu re certain clarifications have been sought for from the All India Council of Tec hnical Education (for short referred to as the AICTE) and the Distance Education Council (for short hereafter also referred to as the DEC), which are still awai ted. The answering respondents have admitted the existence of sufficient number of vacancies in the cadre of Assistant Engineer and according to them, once the clarifications, as sought for, are received, appropriate steps would be taken, if permissible under the Rules to accommodate the petitioners against the same. Mr. Bhattacharjee has urged that the institution which had bestowed the B.Tech. degree on them being a deemed University, no further recommendation or approval thereof, either by the AICTE or the DEC is warranted and, therefore, the hesitat ion on the part of the departmental authorities is wholly uncalled for. As the petitioners are eligible in law to be considered for direct recruitment to the p ost of Assistant Engineer in the Department, the delay in the attending facts an d circumstances is without any justification, but causing serious prejudice to t hem. Mr. Bora abiding by the pleaded stand of the respondents, has urged that a decis ion on the petitioners’ claim for direct recruitment to the posts of the Assista nt Engineer in the Department is a matter of time and is contingent on the recei pt of the clarifications sought for from the AICTE and DEC. Upon hearing the learned counsel for the parties and on a consideration of their pleaded assertions, this Court is of the view that a time frame ought to be out lined for the respondents to take a final decision on the issue. If the petitio ners are academically qualified in terms of the prescriptions of the Rules for b eing drafted to the post of Assistant Engineer, they being armed with the provis ional certificates issued by the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, Gan dhi Vidya Mandir, Rajasthan, there is no reason why there should be any undue de lay in the matter. On the other hand, if they are not eligible, the respondents ought to take a decision by recording reasons and communicate the same to them as early as possible. In the above view of the matter, this petition is closed with a direction to the departmental authorities, more particularly, the Secretary, Government of Assam , Public Health Engineering Department, Dispur to cause necessary steps to be ta ken to expedite the collection of the responses from the AICTE and DEC in the ma tter and take an appropriate decision within a period of six (6) weeks from the date of receipt of the certified copy of this order. It is made clear that this Court has not offered any comment on the merit of the petitioner’s claim and it would be within the exclusive domain and discretion o f the concerned departmental authority to determine the issue, however, in accor dance with law. Needless to say, the decision is taken, should be communicated to the petitioner in writing forthwith. The petition stands disposed in the above terms. No cos ts.