Supreme Court Allows Teachers To File Representation Before Centre Against Selection Criteria For National Award For Teachers

The Supreme Court recently allowed teachers from 10 different states who had jointly filed a plea challenging the revised selection process for National Award to Teachers issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development Ministry in 2018 as "opaque and discriminatory", to approach the Centre with their representation.

The Court took note of the submission of the Union that the criterion for the award was a matter of policy.

The Bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra directed the Petitioners to approach the Centre with their grievance by submitting a representation:

“…the only relief that we can grant to the petitioners herein is to grant liberty to make a detailed representation to the respondent so that the same could be taken into consideration, in the event, the respondent intends to revise the selection procedure in future.

It is needless to observe that if the respondent finds that the representation has certain aspects which could be considered for revision of the selection procedure and implemented, the same may be accordingly considered.” 

Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee appearing for the Union submitted that the criterion for the award has been formulated by the Union as a matter of policy and hence the petitioners cannot seek a revision of the selection procedure. The Union also contended that the criterion is based on expert opinion and after due consideration of relevant criteria.

The National Award for Teachers recognizes the contribution of teachers by presenting awards to them on 5th September every year. In 2018, the criterion for awarding teachers was revised. The grievance of the petitioners is that the revised guidelines is discriminatory and does not accommodate every category of teachers.

According to the revised guidelines issued by the HRD Department, the applications need to be made through a web-portal, where an application form and portfolio need to be submitted. The Selection Committees constituted at the District and State level are required to recommended candidates and once they are selected they are required to deliver a presentation before an independent jury at the National level. The Petitioners were aggrieved by the reduction in quota for recommendation of prospective candidates by State/Union Territory which was decreased from 312 to 145. The Petitioners also contended that 374-378 candidates were being awarded each year from the year 2000, but according to the revised guidelines only 47 candidates will be selected by the National Jury for the award.

Case Title: Girisha Chandra Mishra and Others V Union of India, WPC (C) No.908/2019

Citation : 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 541

Click Here To Read/Download Order