The Bihar government will seek legal opinion following the Patna High Court directive that the State has to continue appointing lecturers through the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC).

"The education department will take the next step after going through the copy of the judgment. We will also seek legal advice from our advocates about the high court directive," principal secretary, education, D.S. Gangwar said.

On Tuesday, the high court bench of Justice A.K. Tripathi stayed the government order stopping the BPSC from carrying out appointments of lecturers - now designated assistant professors - in Bihar's colleges. According to education department sources, the government could now move a larger bench challenging the single bench order.

The government is considering reverting to the old system of making appointments through the universities service commission. The Nitish government had in 2007 abolished the universities service commission after charges of nepotism were levelled against its members.

Justice Tripathi's order was passed on a writ petition filed by one Archana Bharti, who had requested the court to direct BPSC to publish the result of the interview conducted by the commission pursuant to the advertisement issued in 2014 for the appointment of assistant professors in state colleges. Last month, the BPSC, on the directive of the government, stopped the ongoing recruitment process of assistant professors midway.

Challenging the government directive, petitioner Bharti's counsel Y.V. Giri pleaded that the State had no role in the recruitment process of assistant professors as the matter is between universities and the BPSC. "We pleaded before the court that government can frame new recruitment rules for fresh vacancies. The government can't amend the recruitment rules for the ongoing appointment process," Giri said.

The court directive has come as a relief to thousands of candidates who were to be affected by the government order. The appointment of assistant professors was being carried out after a gap of nearly 11 years and around one lakh candidates had applied for the posts across 11 universities.

In September 2014, the BPSC had issued an advertisement for filling up 3,365 posts in the rank of assistant professors. Assistant professors in Maithili have been appointed; the list of successful candidates for English has been declared, but the candidates are awaiting appointment; the interview process is over for six subjects - mathematics, physics, chemistry, philosophy, psychology and economics - but the final results are yet to be declared.

Satish Patel, a Patna University research scholar who had applied for an assistant professor's job in history, said: "The Patna High Court directive is a big relief to lakhs of candidates like me who had applied for posts and were in great confusion after the state government stopped the recruitment process mid-way."

"The last teachers' appointment was carried out in 2003 when around 1,000 assistant professors were appointed. Since then no recruitments have been made though lakhs of candidates who have a PhD and or have cleared NET (National Eligibility Test) are waiting for university jobs."