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REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL) NO.26824 OF 2012

YASHWANT SINGH & ORS. … PETITIONERS

             VS. STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. … RESPONDENTS

WITH I.A.Nos. 668, 669, 671, 674, 675, 676, 677, 679,  680,  681,   and   Dy.   Nos.96650,102358,  102908,  107866/2011  and  1117,  1251,  3372,  3363,   4307,  4775,  5820, 4785, 5802, 7277, 8002, 7861, 7860,  8223,  8232,  8025,  8709,  9296,  9291, 9610, 9582,  10029,  10303,  10783,  10777,  10773,  10772,  10817,  10822,   11173,  4069, 11080,  11355, 11872,  12010,  12009, 12012, 12523, 4473,  13535,  13533, 13883,  14230,  14529,  14902,  14901,  15677,  5602,  17890,  17893, 19256,  20919, 20920, 5727, 22003, 30504/2012  and   Contempt   Petition   (C)   No.87/2013   in  Contempt  Petition  (C)  No.297/2007  in  S.L.P.  (C)  No.22882 of 2004 W.P. (C) No.49 of 2013 S.L.P. (C) No.5946 of 2013 Writ Petition (C) No.344 of 2012

O R D E R

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ALTAMAS KABIR, CJI.

1. Special  Leave  Petition  (Civil)  Nos.  

22882-22888 of 2004 were filed by several trained  

teachers for a direction upon the State of Bihar to  

appoint them in the vacancies in the post of primary  

teachers  in  the  State  of  Bihar.   The  same  was  

withdrawn on an undertaking given on behalf of the  

State of Bihar on 18th January, 2006, whereby the  

State of Bihar committed itself to recruiting and  

filling up the vacant posts of teachers in primary  

schools  with  trained  teachers.   The  undertaking  

given by the State of Bihar reads as follows:

"That in the meantime, it has been decided  that trained teachers be recruited on the  vacant  posts  available  in  the  State  of  Bihar.  The  Bihar  Elementary  Teachers  Appointment Rules, 2003 having been quashed  by  the  Patna  High  Court,  new  recruitment  rules  are  contemplated  to  facilitate  recruitment    of  trained  teachers  in  a  decentralized  manner,  by  giving  them  age  relaxation as ordered by the High Court.

That Chapters 6 and 7 of the Bihar Education  Code  relating  to  oriental  education  and  hostels and messes will be kept in mind, as  directed  by  the  Patna  High  Court,  while  making recruitment of teachers.

That it is respectfully submitted that since  

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the number of available trained teachers in  the State is expected to be less than the  available vacancies, no test for selection  is required to that extent, a reference to  this  Bihar  Public  Service  Commission  for  initiating  the  process  of  recruitment  of  trained teachers may not be necessary, and  the order of this Hon'ble Court and of the  Patna  High  Court  in  this  regard  may  be  modified"

2. The application made for withdrawal of the  

Special  Leave  Petition  was  disposed  of  by  this  

Court on 23rd January, 2006.  Subsequently, when the  

State of Bihar failed to abide by its commitments  

and assurances, the Petitioner, Nand Kishore Ojha,  

filed Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 207 of 2006,  

and the same was disposed of with a direction upon  

the  State  of  Bihar  to  implement  the  undertaking  

given earlier, upon a categorical statement being  

made that priority would be given to the trained  

teachers  in  matters  of  appointment  in  the  said  

posts.

3. Thereafter, on account of further default  

on the part of the State of Bihar to honour its  

commitments,  another  Contempt  Petition,  being  

Contempt  Petition  (Civil)  No.  297  of  2007,  was  

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filed  and  several  applications  were  made  in  the  

Contempt  Petition  by  trained  teachers  similarly  

situated,  for  being  impleaded  as  parties  to  the  

proceedings.   Ultimately,  the  learned  Attorney  

General appeared before us on 25th August, 2009, and  

assured us that it was not the intention of the  

State of Bihar to resile from the undertaking given  

on its behalf.  Since there had been a change in  

the administrative set up in the State of Bihar,  

the situation had become more complex and it had  

become  difficult  to  work  out  a  solution  to  the  

problem posed in filling up the vacancies in the  

post  of  primary  school  teachers  throughout  the  

State of Bihar.  When Contempt Petition (Civil) No.  

297 was taken up for consideration, we heard the  

same along with several interlocutory applications  

filed  by  several  teachers  having  individual  

grievances and reserved judgment.   

4.By  our  order  dated  13th October,  2011,  on  the  

Contempt  Petition  filed  in  SLP(C)  No.  22882  of  

2004,  arising  out  of  the  breach  of  undertaking  

given on 18th January, 2006, by the State of Bihar  

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and the order passed on the basis thereof on 23rd  

January, 2006 in the aforesaid SLP, we had passed  

orders directing that the trained teachers who at  

one time were less than the number of vacant posts,  

should be given appointment in the vacancies that  

were available.  Subsequently, however, there was  

some  discrepancy  as  to  the  number  of  vacancies  

available as against the number of teachers to be  

accommodated.   Accordingly,  we  adopted  a  figure  

from an advertisement, which had been published for  

recruitment of primary school teachers and took the  

number of available vacancies to be 34,540.  We had  

further directed that the said vacancies be filled  

up with the said number of trained teachers as a  

one time measure to give effect to the undertakings  

given on 18th January, 2006 and 23rd January, 2006.   

5.Subsequently, it came to light that the number of  

candidates available were much more than the number  

of  vacancies  and  there  were  also  serious  doubts  

raised  about  the  eligibility  of  some  of  the  

candidates  and  the  genuineness  of  some  of  the  

institutions  from  which  they  alleged  to  have  

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received  their  training.   In  our  order  of  19th  

January,  2011,  we  had  indicated  that  certain  

incongruities had been pointed out on behalf of the  

Petitioners  with  regard  to  the  list  of  eligible  

candidates furnished by the State of Bihar.   

6.When the said dispute could not be resolved in  

terms of the list produced by the State of Bihar,  

we thought it fit to entrust a neutral person with  

the work and, accordingly, we had appointed Justice  

V.A.  Mohta,  a  retired  Judge  of  the  Bombay  High  

Court, who retired as Chief Justice of the Orissa  

High Court, as Special Officer in whose presence  

the list could be settled.  However, since Justice  

Mohta expressed his desire to be relieved of the  

responsibility, by our order dated 24th February,  

2011,  while  relieving  Justice  V.A.  Mohta,  we  

appointed Mr. Justice S.K. Chattopadhyay, a retired  

Judge of the Patna High Court in his place, to take  

up and complete the finalization of the seniority  

list.  After much debate, the list submitted by  

Justice Chattopadhyay was accepted and in terms of  

the  recommendations  made,  34,540  candidates  were  

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appointed in different primary schools in the State  

of Bihar.

7. The matter did not end there.  On account  

of the fact that some of the candidates, who had  

not appeared before Justice Chattopadhyay, came up  

with fresh applications in support of their cases  

and urged that there were various omissions from  

the final select list, we decided to entertain the  

said applications, particularly, on account of the  

directions, which we had given, in our judgment and  

order dated 13th October, 2011, that no court would  

entertain any objection or applications with regard  

to the list of candidates, who had already been  

appointed, in terms of our earlier order.

8. During the hearing of these applications,  

special leave petitions and writ petitions, what  

emerged  is  that  most  of  the  applicants  were  

aggrieved  by  some  defect  or  the  other  in  the  

preparation of the select list, which occurred on  

account of the failure of the candidates to give  

their  relevant  particulars  to  Justice  

Chattopadhyay.

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9. Be  that  as  it  may,  in  the  event,  some  

discrepancies had crept in the final select list,  

the  individual  grievances  contained  various  

anomalies, which it is difficult for us to unravel.  

Accordingly, we modify our order dated 13th October,  

2011, and allow the applicants to approach the High  

Court for redressal of their grievances.  We also  

direct  that  the  applications,  special  leave  

petitions  and  writ  petitions  filed  before  us  be  

treated as withdrawn, with liberty to the parties  

to  approach  the  High  Court  individually  or  

otherwise, for relief, if any, but without, in any  

way, affecting the appointments of those teachers  

who have already been appointed against the vacant  

34,540  posts  and  are  working.   We  have  been  

informed during the hearing that about 2413 posts  

out  of  the  34,540  posts  were  still  left  to  be  

filled  up.   All  the  applications,  Special  Leave  

Petitions  and  Writ  Petitions  are,  therefore,  

disposed  of  in  the  light  of  the  aforesaid  

observations.  We make it clear that none of the  

persons  appointed  out  of  the  34,540  vacancies  

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should be disturbed in any way, but the question of  

filling up the balance vacancies may be taken into  

consideration, while disposing of the applications  

in question.     

…………………………………………………CJI.

  (ALTAMAS KABIR)

………………………………………………………J.

             (ANIL R. DAVE)

………………………………………………………J.

  (VIKRAMAJIT SEN)

New Delhi Dated: July 18,2013.

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