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Gauhati High Court directs Registrar General to place PIL on violation of official language policy before CJI bench for listing

The Gauhati High Court recently directed its Registrar General to place the PIL alleging violation of the official language policy of the state before the Chief Justice on the administrative side for an appropriate decision for listing it and three other petitions before the appropriate Bench.

The PIL has been filed by one Sidhartha Sarmah challenging the decision of the Cabinet taken in its meeting held on 24.11.2021 by which the Cabinet decided to remove the language qualifying papers from Assam Public Services Combined Competitive Examination, and also for a direction to the respondent authorities to strictly follow the Assam Official Language Act, 1960.

The main contention of the petitioner in the PIL is that the aforesaid Cabinet decision violates the official language policy of the State. It has been submitted that apart from this, it would amount to changing the terms of the advertisement issued by the Assam Public Service Commission on 08.09.2020 for recruitment to services/posts under the Government of Assam, wherein there is a requirement for appearing in qualifying language papers, namely, 
(1) Paper A- Any one of the languages from Assamese, Bengali, Bodo. Candidates from Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong districts who had not studied any of these languages in school are exempted from appearing from this Paper-A. 
2. Paper B – English.

According to K.N. Choudhury, the learned senior counsel for the petitioner, if the aforesaid Cabinet decision is given effect to, the requirement of qualifying in Language Paper-A of Assamese/Bengali/Bodo will no longer be necessary. In other words, there will be no need to qualify in the aforesaid language Paper-A.

Choudhury alleged that this amounts not only violation of the language policy of the State as all the Civil Servants serving in the State are required to be acquainted with the official language of the State but also amounts to change in the examination criteria in the notification which was issued in terms of the Assam Public Services Combined Competitive Examination (Amendment) Rules, 2019 & 2020, which will not be permissible.

Senior Counsel for the petitioner submitted that it has been specifically mentioned in Section (II) of the Government notification dated 05.08.2019 notifying the Assam Public Services Combined Competitive Examination (Amendment) Rules 2019 that there shall be qualifying papers out of which there will be one paper in Assamese/Bengali/Bodo (Paper-A), wherein exemption has been given to certain candidates hailing from some districts as follows:

“Qualifying Papers (in the level of Class X): 1. Paper A (300 Marks – 3 Hours Duration) any one of the language from Assamese, Bengali, Bodo candidates from Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong Districts who had not studied any of these languages in school shall be exempted from appearing for qualifying language papers.’’

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It has been accordingly submitted that if the said Cabinet decision is acted upon, without amending the aforesaid rules, which are yet to be amended, apart from violating the State Language Policy, it would also amount to change of goal post during the recruitment process which is not permissible.

As far as law is concerned, the Division Bench of Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Malasri Nandi were also of the view that once the recruitment process has been initiated, any change in the Advertisement/ Rules relating to recruitment would be questionable.

It has been pointed out by T.J. Mahanta, Senior Counsel and Standing Counsel for Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) , that three other petitions are pending before the High Court in which some of the candidates have approached the High Court challenging the exemption given to candidates belonging to Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong districts, who had not studied in any of these languages in the school, from appearing in the qualifying language Paper-A, as discriminatory.

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Accordingly, the High Court by order dated 10.12.2021 passed in the aforesaid petitions had ordered that “in order to remove any confusion, we direct that the APSC shall hold the written examination without the language paper.”

Though the Senior Counsel for the petitioner in the PIL has prayed for passing of an ad interim order, directing the APSC not to hold any written examination, the Court would not like to pass any such prohibitory order at this stage as it may run contrary to the order already passed by the High Court in three Petitions, but High Court have also noted the submission made by Senior Counsel for APSC that the final examination has not yet been announced though the APSC is fully ready to conduct the final examination.

Senior Counsel for APSC has submitted that an application has already been filed in the aforesaid bunch of writ petitions seeking clarification as to whether the order passed in the aforesaid writ petitions to the effect that “the APSC shall hold the written examination without the language paper” is with regard to the language Paper-A (Assamese, Bengali and Bodo) only, or in respect of the English language Para-B also and till such clarification is made, the APSC is not in a position to announce the final date of written examination.

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Considering the submission of T.J. Mahanta,the Bench also expects that examination will be held after obtaining the leave of the High Court in the PIL.

It appeared to the Court that the issues raised in the said bunch of petitions, though arose out of different causes of action, are closely related to the issue raised in the present PIL. The Bench is thus of the view that rather than taking up this PIL separately, it would be more appropriate if the present PIL is also taken up along with that bunch of petitions.

However, since the PIL and other bunch of petitions referred to above are listed before different Benches, the High Court directed the Registrar General to place the PIL before the  Chief Justice on the administrative side for an appropriate decision for listing of this PIL and other three petitions  before the appropriate Bench.

“List the PIL after the necessary order of the Hon’ble Chief Justice,” the order reads.

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