Telangana High Court Orders Fresh Exam In Both English & Telugu Languages To Recruit Teachers For REIs

The Telangana High Court has directed the Telangana Residential Educational Institutions Recruitment Board (TREIRB) to conduct written examination for art teachers in the Residential Educational Institutions Societies (REIs), in two languages, i.e, English and Telugu.

Justice Pulla Karthik passed the order in a writ petition challenging actions of the Recruitment Board in conducting the exam only in English, despite the notification indicating that the exam would be conducted in two languages.

Court held that new requirements cannot be introduced after the selection process has elapsed.

The petitioner relied on K.Manjusree v. State of Andhra Pradesh to contend that not conducting the exam in Telugu language was violative of Schedule-VIII of the Indian Constitution, which recognizes Telugu as one of the languages. It was also argued to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution as by providing the question paper only in English language, the respondents have discriminated against the candidates not knowing English.

The Recruitment Board on the other hand contended that the preceding exams for the post of Arts Teachers were also conducted only in English. Further it was contended that the written exams were conducted in such a way, since all Residential Institutions working under the five Residential Societies (within the State) were English Medium and run with an objective to maintain the vocabulary and coaching pattern, the teachers have to teach in English only to compete with other students studying in private and corporate English Medium schools.

The Court accepted the dicta laid in K. Manjusree case, wherein it was held that introducing new requirements after the selection process had ended would be equal to changing the rules after the game was played. It observed,

“the action of the respondents in conducting examination in single language i.e. English, in spite of mentioning as bilingual in the notification, cannot be sustained and therefore is liable to be set aside.”

Court ordered the respondents to conduct fresh written exam for the post in two languages i.e. English and Telugu.

Case no.: WP 22593 of 2023

Counsel for petitioners: Bhaglekar Akash Kumar

Counsel for respondent: N Ramesh.

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