69000 Shiksha Mitras' Recruitment: SC Reserves Judgment On UP Assistant Teachers Recruitment Issue

The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its judgment in a case related to the recruitment of 69000 assistant teachers in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

A bench led by Justice UU Lalit reserved its judgment after hearing Counsel for Petitioner(s) in a batch of pleas, the lead matter being one filed by the Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shiksha Mitra Association challenging the Allahabad High Court's order in a case related to the recruitment of 69000 assistant teachers.

The basis of the plea rests on the issue of cut-off marks for recruitment which were raised by the UP Government and contested by the Uttar Pradesh Shiksha Mitra Association.

The Court heard Counsel on a number of issues including the issue of whether the qualified teachers who score more than 45/40 should be given appointment.

In this backdrop, the UP Government had increased the cut-off marks to 65/60 in the 2019 examination, leaving 32,629 Shiksha Mitra candidates out.

The Allahabad High Court had confirmed the state government's decision of keeping higher cut-off marks for the recruitment of 69,000 teachers in primary schools of the state. 

On June 3, the Allahabad High Court had stayed appointment of 69,000 assistant basic teachers in Uttar Pradesh, days after the Supreme Court sought the Uttar Pradesh government's reply on pleas challenging the High Court verdict, which had upheld the state's decision to keep higher cut-off marks for these appointments.

In its May 6 verdict, the High Court had directed the state government to complete within the next three months the process for appointment of 69,000 assistant basic teachers in Uttar Pradesh.

The Supreme Court had on May 21 asked the state government to explain the process adopted for the appointments through a chart.

A bench of Justices U.U. Lalit, M.M. Shantanagoudar and Vineet Saran had initially declined to interfere with the High Court verdict. But it later modified its order and issued notice to the state government, posting the matter for further hearing on July 6.

It asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain why it changed the earlier criteria of 45 per cent cut-off marks for the general category and 40 per cent for the reserved category. 

On June 9, Top Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to keep 37,339 posts of Assistant Teachers (Shiksha Mitras) vacant, thereby staying the ongoing selection process of teachers in the state.

It was after passing of the said order that the petitions were listed for July 14. However, confusions ensued as State Government had begun recruitment processes for filling up the remaining posts which had not been filled up via examination.

The Court observed that it was prima facie borne from the records that the State Government of UP was proceeding with the selection to fill up all posts, despite the May 21 order, wherein the Top Court had passed interim orders directing that, "All Shiksha Mitras who are presently holding their posts as Assistant Teachers shall not be disturbed".