PATNA, June 18 -- Less than a month after the Bihar Raj Bhawan's notification for posting of principals in the constituent colleges of Bihar through lottery was put under abeyance by the Patna High Court, the three petitioners, in a sudden development, have moved the withdrawal petition in the court. "I have moved the withdrawal petition on Monday, as desired by the three petitioners, and it should come on the list within a few days," said Siddharth Prasad, the counsel for the petitioners. The scheduled next date of hearing in the case is July 7 "as prayed for on behalf of the State as well as the Chancellor for four weeks time to file their respective counter affidavits". The names of all the three petitioners -- Soheli Mehta, who topped the merit list, Shyamal Kishor and Shashibhushan -- have been recommended for the post of principals, but the stakes are always high to get posting in prominent colleges, which led to unsavoury incidents, allegations of money playing a part, favouritism, manipulation to override seniority and even reprimand and directions from the Raj Bhawan to undo the wrongs in the past. This was challenged on the plea that the merit-wise posting of principals recommended by the Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC) would be undermined through a draw of lots, but nobody is ready to say what led to sudden backtracking. It was apparently to avoid a repeat of the ugly situation or controversies, the Raj Bhawan had on May 16 issued notification to all the vice chancellors with detailed guidelines for the posting of principals, which included random lottery method to be carried under videography compulsorily. The Raj Bhawan had constituted the committees with nomination of all women as chancellor's representatives in different universities, but while putting the Chancellor's office notification under abeyance the court gave the Chancellor office the option of revisiting it, if so advised. However, when that did not happen and the Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, while talking to media, defended the lottery system as logical and unbiased, it was clear the Raj Bhawan's stand and legal recourse could only delay the process further. "Everyone wanted that there should not be further delay in the posting of principals. There are different types of colleges and different grades of people selected for the post. Our intention was never to confront. Counselling in most universities had been almost completed before the Raj Bhawan notification for lottery system. Now, after withdrawal of our petition, we hope things happen in the best possible way," said Kishor, a principal aspirant. As per the Raj Bhawan's May 16 letter issued by Robert L Chongthu, principal secretary to the Governor, to all the VCs of state universities, the three-member committee comprising the concerned VC, registrar and the nominee of the Chancellor would follow the laid down procedure through random lottery method. The BSUSC had on March 24 recommended the names of 116 principals in the state's constituent colleges. The commission had published the merit list with allotment of universities. Around 158 candidates were interviewed, while 141 applications could not be shortlisted during scrutiny. However, two months on, the modalities of posting are yet to be finalised, which would now be possible only in July or August....