The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to prepare a fresh selection list for the appointment of 69,000 assistant teachers in the state.
The court has annulled the selection lists issued in June 2020 and January 2022, which had included 6,800 candidates.
A division bench of Justice AR Masoodi and Justice Brijraj Singh issued this order while resolving 90 special appeals filed by Mahendra Pal and others, challenging a single-judge order dated March 13 of the previous year. The latest order was uploaded on the court’s website on Friday.
The court instructed that, while preparing the new selection list, any adverse impact on the currently employed assistant teachers should be mitigated by allowing them to complete the ongoing academic session. This directive is aimed at preventing any disruption to the students’ education.
Additionally, the bench revised the previous order, stating that reserved category candidates who qualify for the general category merit list should be migrated to that category. Furthermore, the benefit of vertical reservation should be extended to horizontal reservation categories as well.
The court upheld the single-judge’s decision to cancel the January 5, 2022, selection list of 6,800 reserved category candidates. The bench instructed the state government and relevant authorities to complete the process of issuing a new selection list within three months.
The appellants had contested the single-judge’s decision, arguing that the reservation provided by state officials in the selection of 69,000 teachers was inaccurate and questioned the validity of the appointment of the 6,800 teachers. The single-judge had ruled that candidates who benefited from reservations in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) should not be considered under the unreserved category, even if they met the cut-off marks for the general category. However, the current bench clarified that such candidates should be migrated to the general category if they meet the merit criteria.
The court’s decision is anticipated to significantly impact the ongoing assistant teacher recruitment process in Uttar Pradesh.
