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HC clears decks for recruitment of 1.25 lakh teachers
PATNA The Patna High Court on Thursday cleared the decks for recruitment of nearly 1
PATNA
The Patna High Court on Thursday cleared the decks for recruitment of nearly 1.25 lakh school teachers in Bihar, which has remained stuck for nearly two years.
The court directed the state government to grant 4% reservation to the differently abled, including the visually impaired persons, as per the provisions laid down in the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, as also the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and give them additional time to apply.
In 2019, the National Federation of the Blind (Bihar chapter) had filed a petition challenging the recruitment process on the ground that it didn’t reserve seats for them.
The bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sanjay Kumar said the process should be expedited to ensure publication of the merit list for recruitment of teachers in the state’s primary and secondary schools. The entire result, including those from the physically challenged category, would now be published together after completing the exercise in a month.
Advocate Genera (AG) Lalit Kishore said the government agreed to give opportunity to candidates from the physically challenged category, who were eligible to apply by the cut-off date in the advertisement for recruitment (September 26, 2019 for middle and high schools and November 11, 2019 for primary schools) but could not apply. “They will be given 15 days to apply against the vacancies for the physically challenged, and after the processing of their applications, results will be announced for all,” he said.
He also submitted a letter from additional chief secretary (education) Sanjay Kumar, which detailed the separate procedure to be followed for the physically challenged. The education department will publish the vacancies — as per recruiting agency, subject and category — on the web portal with clarity about the vacancies for the physically challenged. The advertisement will also be published in newspapers. Those who have already applied would not be required to apply.
Counsel for the petitioners, Surendra Kumar Singh, said the court accepted their contention that the physically challenged, including the visually impaired, could not be treated as sub-category for reservation within reservation, as was done in the roster last time, leading to the petition. “The court accepted our contention and the government also agreed to this. It is already there in the Bihar gazette that reservation to the physically challenged will not be on the basis of caste, but on the basis of impairment. It will now be treated as a separate category as per the laid down provisions and the government will issue a separate notification for it. Just as there are categories for SC, ST etc. there will be one for the physically challenged. Earlier, the reservation roster did not have any mention of the category for the physically challenged and it had been tagged with the caste categories,” he said.
The AG had earlier placed two options before the court, saying the government was committed to guaranteeing adherence to the reservation roster. While one option was to earmark 4% quota for the physically challenged, including the visually impaired, or keep 4% seats vacant till the final disposal of the case and go ahead with recruitment on the remaining 96% seats, if the court so permitted.
Education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, whose initiative for an early hearing in the case led to the verdict, welcomed the HC decision and said the government would try to expedite the recruitment process in keeping with the court order. “This is good for the teacher aspirants. The government will soon initiate the process for the differently abled,” he said.
