Letters Patent Appeal No.13 OF 2002 *********** Against the Judgment and Order dated 3rd September, 2001 passed by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Aftab Alam in C.W.J.C. No.4152 of 2001. ----------- JITENDRA KR.MISHRA @ JITENDRA&------- (Appellant) Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS-----------------Respondents) --------------- For the appellants: Mr. Jagdish Prasad –I, Advocate. Mr.Virendra Kumar. For the State : Mr. Shashi Bhushan Kumar, S.C.-16 For the University: Mr. Ajay Behari Sinha, Advocate. P R E S E N T THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE BARIN GHOSH THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE C.M.PRASAD Barin Ghosh & C.M. Prasad, JJ. Sri Lakshami Kishore College, Sitamarhi, an Affiliated College, became a Constituent College of B.R. Ambedker, Bihar University. In a writ petition registered as C.W.J.C.No.1724 of 1997, the petitioners herein contended that they were appointed as non-teaching staff of the said College before the College became a Constituent College. It was contended that for no just reason the University is not paying them their salaries in accordance with law. This court by an order dated 18th March, 1997 disposed of the said writ petition and directed the University to make a recommendation to the State Government for recognition of 2 the services of the petitioners. The University made a recommendation on 22nd November, 1997, but as usual the government sat tight over the matter, resulting filing of a contempt petition. Soon thereafter, while the contempt petition was pending, by an order dated 10th February, 2001 the government refused to act on the basis of the said recommendation, principally, on three grounds, namely, appointments were made without advertisement, consequently without selection and ultimately appointments were not made by the Managing Committee, but by a sub- committee. It was held out in the order dated 10th February, 2001 that since the appointments of the petitioners were contrary to the provisions of law; the government cannot recognize the appointments of the petitioners. 2. The said order of the government dated 10th February, 2001 was assailed in a writ petition, which having been dismissed by the Judgment and Order under appeal, the writ petitioners are before us in the present appeal. The reason for dismissal of the writ petition was acceptance by the writ court that the appellants were appointed in violation of the provisions contained in Articles 14 & 16 of the 3 Constitution of India. 3. In the present appeal the appellants have drawn our attention to the fact that in the previous writ petition itself, i.e., in C.W.J.C. No.1724 of 1997, the petitioners had brought on record the advertisement as was published by the District Magistrate, who was the Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee of the College at the relevant time. The appellants had further brought on record that by the advertisement itself candidates seeking to respond to the advertisement were directed to appear before the Selection Committee on 15th of November, 1980. The appellants had also brought on record of the previous writ petition the decision of the Ad hoc Committee taken on 12th of November, 1980, whereby the Ad hoc Committee appointed a Selection Committee and directed the Selection Committee to select amongst those candidates who would respond to the advertisement on 15th of November, 1980 and thereupon to appoint the selected persons and to forward the names of the selected candidates to the State Government, through the University, as were then required to be done. 4. There is no dispute that as on the date the 4 petitioners were appointed, ample sanctioned vacancies were available to appoint the petitioners. In the circumstances, the order of the government dated 10th December, 2001 cannot be sustained even for one second. It is the contention of the government that the order dated 10th February, 2001 was passed in view of total non-cooperation on the part of the University and in particular failure on its part to provide appropriate informations to the government. The stand so taken by the government is unjust and unacceptable. The government was directed to consider the recommendation of the University in a writ petition filed by the appellants. Before passing the order dated 10th February, 2001, in the event University failed to cooperate with the government, it was obligatory on the part of the government to issue a notice to the appellants calling upon them to produce, whatever document the government wanted to look at. 5. For the reasons above, we allow the appeal set aside the Judgment and Order under appeal and at the same time allow the writ petition and quashed the order of the government dated 10th February, 2001. We direct the government now to discharge its obligations in terms of the 5 previous direction of this court dated 28th of April, 1997 given in C.W.J.C. No. 1724 of 1997 in the light of what has been discussed above, as quickly as possible but not later than three months from the date of service of a copy of this order upon the Secretary, Higher Education Department of the Government. Before closing let us remind the government and its officers to discharge their obligations in accordance with the directions as above so that once again the appellants are not compelled to come to this court with a contempt application. Patna High Court, Dated 9th Sept., 2008, Mkr./N.A.F.R. (Barin Ghosh, J.) (C.M. Prasad, J.)