IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
CWJC No.16955 of 2010
Arjun Prasad Sinha, Son of Sri Chandrika Sinha, resident of Village-Fajilpur,
P.S.-Nardiganj, P.O.-Kahuara, District-Nawadah, at present Principal Incharge,
Inter School, Nardiganj, P.S.-Nardiganj, District-Nawadah. -Petitioner.
VERSUS
1. The State of Bihar through Director, Secondary Education, Bihar, Patna.
2. The Deputy Director (Secondary) Education, Bihar, Patna.
3. The Regional Education Deputy Director, Magadh Pramandal, Gaya.
4. The District Education Officer, Nawadah.
5. Binod Prasad Singh, Assistant Teacher, Inter School, Nardiganj, District-
Nawadah. -Respondents.
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For the Petitioner : Mr. Devendra Kumar Sinha, Sr. Adv. & Mr. Satya
Ranjan Sinah, Adv.
For the Respondent No.5 : M/s- Tej Bahadur Singh, Sr. Adv., Durgesh
Nandan & Ravi Nath Sharma.
For the State : Mr. Nagendra Sharma, AC to GP-8.
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02 19.11.2010 In the present case, the dispute is between the Arjun Prasad
Sinha and Binod Prasad Singh, who are Assistant Teachers in
Intermediate School, Nardiganj, District Nawadah. They are fighting
for the post of Principal Incharge of the said School. It appears that the
Director, Secondary Education, Government of Bihar considered the
matter and held the respondent, Binod Prasad Singh to be senior and
accordingly directed him to work as Principal Incharge, which order is
impugned as Annexure-4 to the writ petition.
I have heard Mr. D.K. Sinha, learned Senior Counsel
appearing in support of the writ petition and Mr. Tej Bahadur Singh,
learned Senior Counsel appearing for respondent no.5, Binod Prasad
Singh. The parties dispute the concept of seniority as enunciated by the
Director, Secondary Education. In my view, it is not necessary to go
into that question. If there is a permanent vacancy in respect of the post
of Principal of the School, in question, this Court wonders why steps are
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not immediately taken to fill up the vacancy by a permanent appointee
rather than resort to ad hocism, even if, for some reason for a short time
ad hocism is to be resorted to which must be an exception then two
things have to be kept in mind. Firstly, the inter se seniority and
secondly the person must be eligible for being appointed as Headmaster,
as such, this twin considerations have to prevail.
Keeping these in mind, I direct the Director, Secondary
Education, Government of Bihar to take immediate steps for filling up
the vacancy on a permanent basis. The same shall be done and
completed in a period not more than two months. In the meantime,
considering the two aspects, as noted above, in relation to ad hoc
arrangement, he would after making such enquiry, as he may deem fit,
pass appropriate order within one month from the date of production of
a copy of this order before him.
With these observations and directions, the writ petition is
disposed of.
Trivedi/ (Navaniti Prasad Singh, J.)