Allahabad HC to govt: Prepare new merit list to select 69,000 teachers

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad high court has annulled the merit list for the recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh. The division bench ordered the state government to prepare a new merit list on the basis of Asst Teachers' Recruitment Exam (ATRE-19) within three months, by following section 3(6) of the Reservation Rules 1994 and Basic Education Rules 1981.
As the govt has already recruited 67,867 selected candidates in two batches in 2020 on the basis of the ATRE held on Jan 6, 2019, the court said that care should be taken to ensure they don't suffer.
“While preparing the fresh select lists for appointment, if any one of the working candidates is affected by the action of the state government/competent authority, they shall be given the session benefit so that the students may not suffer,” the bench of Justice AR Masoodi and Justice BR Singh said in its verdict on Tuesday, which was made available on Friday.
The division bench, while modifying the order of the single bench passed on March 13, 2023, has also ruled that the candidates of the reserved category would be migrated to the general category on securing marks in the merit prescribed for the general category.
“If a reserved category candidate acquires merit equivalent to the merit prescribed for the general category, the Meritorious Reserved Category candidate shall be migrated to the general category as per the provisions contained in Section 3 (6) of the Reservation Act, 1994,” observed the bench of.
Along with this, the court has refused to interfere in the decision of the single bench which had rejected the select list of 6800 candidates of additional reserved category on January 5, 2022, in the course of the samerecruitment examination.
In December 2018, an advertisement was released for the recruitment of 69,000 primary teachers in the state. On Jan 6, 2019 a qualifying examination was held to shortlist the candidates. On Jan 7, the govt fixed 97 marks (65%) out of 150 as the cutoff for general category and 90 (60%) for reserved class. Of 4.31 lakh candidates who registered, 4.09 lakh candidates appeared, and 1.46 lakh were declared successful. Among those who qualified, 1.1 lakh belonged to reserved categories.
The basic education department started the recruitment process on the basis of results of ARTE in June 2020.
On Oct 11, 2020, appointment letters were given to 31,277 candidates and then on Nov 30, 2020, 36,590 more candidates were recruited. Thus 67,867 recruitments were made out of 69,000posts and 1,133 posts of Scheduled Tribe candidates were shown lying vacant due to nonavailability of the candidates in that category.
However, the process came under scrutiny following allegations that 19,000 candidates from the reserved categories were denied quota benefits.
A number of reserved category candidates moved the high court against the selection. During the course of arguments and hearing, the state government admitted that the provisions of the Reservation Act, 1994 could not be properly followed while applying for the reservation in the selection of 69,000 assistant teachers and, therefore, issued an additional select list on Jan 5, making 6800 more appointments from among the reserved category candidates. However, the single bench in its March 2023 order, quashed this list.