' ANWAR ZAHEER JAMALI, J.---All these identical civil petitions for leave to appeal arise out of common judgment dated 27-10-2011, passed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal, Peshawar ("the Tribunal"), whereby a bunch of service appeals, including the service appeals of present petitioners, were dismissed/disposed of in the following terms:- "9. As a sequel to the foregoing discussion, we would make the following order:-
(i) All the appeals of Junior Clerks, Lab. Assistants and Assistant Store Keeper (M) are dismissed with costs, being devoid of merit.
(ii) The appeal of Ms. Shahana Niazi (Service Appeal No,2177 of 2010) is accepted, and by setting aside the impugned order, she is reinstated in service with consequential/back benefits.
(iii) The appeals of the rest of the appellants including PSTs (M&F) CTs(M&F), PETs(M&F), DMs(M&F), ATs(M&F), TTs(M&F) and Qaris (M&F) are also accepted and impugned termination order in their cases set aside, but instead of their outright reinstatement, their cases are remanded/sent back to the Secretary, Elementary and Secondary Education Department, Peshawar (Respondent No,1) for reconsideration of the cases in the light of above observations for reinstatement of the qualified appellants and a speaking order in respect of those who are not found qualified, by the competent authority, after affording opportunity of hearing to the said appellants through an efficient and fair mechanism to be evolved for the purpose by him so as to ensure compliance with the mandatory legal requirements on the one hand and integrity of the proceedings on the other. Since the matter has already been delayed inordinately, it is expected that the proposed exercise should not take more than three months, where after a progress report be submitted to the Registrar of the Tribunal.
(iv) The respondent-department should also look into claim of those appellants who have alleged performance of duty for considerable time after their appointment and if they are found to have actually performed duty for certain period, and, as such, entitled to pay/salary for the period of the duty, legal procedure should be adopted for recovery of their claims from the then EDO D.I. Khan who has already been held responsible for appointments in question as a consequence of departmental proceedings against him."
' (For the purpose of these petitions, case of all the petitioners is one, which is covered by sub- paragraph "(i)" of the above order.)
2. As evident from the details of the facts recorded in the impugned judgment, the petitioners, who were amongst the category of Junior Clerk, Lab Assistant and Assistant Store Keeper (M), were admittedly appointed without due process of advertisement or following of the coal formalities, which were required to be observed for appointments against these vacancies. It was for this reason that vide order dated 4-9-2009, passed by the District Coordination Officer (DCO), Dear Ismail Khan, their appointments were termed as illegal and their services were accordingly terminated, being void ab initio and without any legal right to hold such appointments in the government service.
3. Learned Advocate Supreme Court for the petitioners, without disputing the above factual aspects of the case, contended that once the petitioners were appointed/inducted in government service and had served for a considerable period, it was necessary that due process/procedure should have been followed for termination of their services, therefore, the original order of termination dated 4-9-2009, passed by respondent No,4, was illegal and liable to be set aside as such. He further contended that the principle of audi alteram partem was not followed in the case of termination of service of petitioners; therefore, the Tribunal was not justified in upholding such arbitrary decision of the respondents.
4. We have carefully considered the submissions made before us by the learned Advocate Supreme Court and also minutely perused the material placed on record, which reveals that during the period 1-1-2007 to 30-6-2008, many illegal and irregular appointments were made and after conducting several inquiries regarding these appointments, this matter was taken up before the Provincial Assembly, wherefrom, after detailed discussion, the matter was referred to Standing Committee No,26 on Elementary and Secondary Education. The Standing Committee in its meeting held on 12-1-2009, taking notice of this flagrant irregularity and corruption, made recommendations for termination of all such illegal appointments. These recommendations of the Standing Committee were adopted by the Provincial Assembly, whereafter again three scrutiny committees were constituted by the Provincial Government, who checked the record of all such appointments and found these appointments illegal, inter alia, being made in violation of recruitment policy and service rules, with the exception of appointments of 309 male and 131 female PSTs. On such reports of the scrutiny committees in the meeting held on 4-8-2009 of Standing Committee, it was decided to terminate the service of all such irregular appointees and in this background the Provincial Government ordered issuance of termination order while the Chief Minister of the province as well as Peshawar High Court, Dera Ismail Khan Bench also passed directions for implementation of such decision of the Standing Committee. Thus, in compliance thereof respondent No,4 DCO Dera Ismail Khan issued his officer order No,8021/DCO(Edu) dated 4- 9-2009, which reads as under:-- "OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COORDINATION OFFICER, DERA ISMAIL KHAN ' OFFICE ORDER:- ' Whereas the Executive District Officer of the then School and Literacy Deptt. Now Elementary and Secondary Education Deptt. Made hundreds of illegal/irregular appointments of different scales and cadres of teacher in the District of D.I. Khan within the period of 1-1-2007 to 31-8-2009 without observing the requisite codel formalities.
' And whereas the issue of illegal appointments was noticed by the Provincial Government and the following enquiry Officers were appointed to have a probe to the matter of illegal/irregular appointments: -
(1) Mr. Falak Naz Khan the then Director Education.
(2) Mr. Muhammad Arifeen Khan the then Special Secretary for Education.
(3) Mr. Haji Ahmad Khan the then Additional Secretary for Education.
(4) Mr. Hidayat Ullah Afghani, Director PITE.
' And whereas after the enquiries, the matter was put before the Standing Committee No,26 of the Provincial Assembly on Education, and the Committee after thorough deliberation ordered for termination, of all the illegally appointed teachers as communicated in the Govt. Of N.-W.F.P.
Elementary and Secondary Education Deptt: Letter No,SO(AB)E&SED/10- 11/Std.Com.26/09, dated 26-8-2009.
' And whereas a Writ Petition No,252 of 2009 dated 11-6-2009 was lodged in the honourable High Court bench at D.I. Khan by Ms. Husan Arra etc. For the implementation of the recommendation of the standing committee which was accepted by the honourable court and ordered the implementation of the standing committee decision within 60 days vide its decision dated 11-6- 2009.
' And whereas the decision of the Standing Committee No,26 was submitted to the Chief Minister N.-W.F.P. For approval and implementation who has been pleased to direct for implementation of the decision of the Standing Committee No,26 as communicated vide Govt. Of N.-W.F.P., Elementary and Secondary Education Deptt. Letter No,SO(AB)E&SED/10- 11/Std.Com.26/09, dated 26-8-2009.
' Now, therefore, I Arshad Khan District Coordination Officer, D.I. Khan Competent Authority, in compliance of the decision of the Standing Committee No,26 of the Provincial Assembly of N.-W.F.P.
Contained in E&SE Deptt: Letter No, SO ( AB)E&SED/ 10-11/Std. Corn. 26/09, dated 26-8-2009, Order of the Hon'ble Peshawar High Court contained in its decision dated 11-6-2009 and order of the honourable Chief Minister N.-W.F.P. Contained in Elementary and Secondary Education Deptt. Letter No, No, SO(AB)E&SED/10-11/Std. Com.26/09 dated 26-8-2009 do hereby terminate services of all the illegally/irregularly appointed teachers, the detail of which is ' given in the annexure "A" with this order duly signed on every page from pages 1 to 60 with immediate effect. District Coordination Officer Dera Ismail Khan No,8021/DCO (Edu) dated D.I. Khan the 4-9-2009"
5. Having noted the relevant facts divulged from the case record, as above, which have not been disputed by the learned Advocate Supreme Court for the petitioners, we do not find any substance in the arguments of learned Advocate Supreme Court regarding denial of opportunity of hearing to the petitioners for the simple reason that one who seeks equity must do equity and approach the Court with clean hands, as opposed to protection of some ill-gotten gains. The petitioners, who admittedly got their appointments from the backdoor without advertisement of vacancies, inviting of applications and completion of codal formalities, in the given facts and circumstances of the case, cannot challenge the principles of good governance adopted at the highest level, mandating each and every appointment in the government service to be made on merits as per relevant rules and completion of codal formalities or lawfully agitate any grievance on the pretext of lack of due opportunity of hearing. The original order of termination of petitioner's service dated 4-9-2009 is self-explanatory and cannot be termed as illegal on any hyper-technical ground, as also rightly concluded by the Tribunal in its impugned judgment, therefore, calling for no interference in exercise of jurisdiction by this Court under Article 212(3) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973. Besides, there is no question of law of public importance involved in these petitions, which is "sine qua non" for invoking such jurisdiction.
6. In view of the above, these civil petitions for leave to appeal are dismissed. .