On Monday, the Supreme Court stayed the Allahabad High Court’s order that directed the Uttar Pradesh government to prepare a fresh selection list for the appointment of 69,000 assistant teachers in the state. The stay also halts the HC’s decision to set aside the selection lists issued in June 2020 and January 2022, which included 6,800 candidates.
A bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government and the UP Basic Education Board in response to a plea filed by Ravi Kumar Saxena and 51 others. The court intends to give the case a final hearing and has requested written submissions, limited to seven pages, from all parties. The matter will be scheduled for hearing in the week beginning September 23.
In August, the Allahabad High Court had directed the state to prepare a new selection list, affecting the appointment process for the 69,000 assistant teachers. The ruling came after hearing 90 appeals challenging a single-judge order from March 2022, which questioned the accuracy of the state’s reservation system in the teacher selection process. The court had ruled that while preparing the new list, efforts should be made to avoid adversely impacting the currently employed teachers, allowing them to complete the academic session to avoid disruption in students’ education.
Furthermore, the division bench of the high court revised a previous order regarding the migration of reserved category candidates to the general category merit list if they met the necessary qualifications. The high court upheld the decision to cancel the January 2022 selection list, which included 6,800 reserved category candidates, and instructed the state to issue a new list within three months.
The case revolves around the reservation policies applied during the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). The single-judge bench ruled that candidates who benefited from reservations should not be considered under the unreserved category, even if they achieved the general category cut-off. However, the division bench later clarified that such candidates should be migrated to the general category if they met the merit criteria.
