The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Assam government for appointing unqualified teachers, saying it will destroy future generations if allowed, as it issued notice in a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging a 2017 state law permitting private school teachers to be absorbed into government service.
It noted the importance of the matter and issued an interim order, directing that “no teacher shall be appointed or absorbed in schools and colleges” unless they possess requisite qualifications under central laws.
The court observed that future generations will be at risk if teachers lacking requisite qualifications as per Parliament-enacted laws are appointed. “Why are they appointing unqualified teachers…We will destroy our future generations if this is permitted,” said a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.
Assam residents Rajesh Chauhan and Madhab Mukunda Pujari moved the court challenging the Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Teachers and Re-Organisation of Educational Institutions) Act, 2017.
Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, who argued the petition, said that the 2017 law serves as a route for private, unqualified teachers to enter government service without meeting the requisites under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, the National Council for Teacher Education Act, and the University Grants Commission Act.
He said the quality of education in Assam is suffering. He added that the 2017 law permits teachers at private institutions to be absorbed into government service without undergoing the process—open advertisement, competitive selection, and merit-based assessment—that applies to public employment.
{{/usCountry}}He said the quality of education in Assam is suffering. He added that the 2017 law permits teachers at private institutions to be absorbed into government service without undergoing the process—open advertisement, competitive selection, and merit-based assessment—that applies to public employment.
{{/usCountry}}The PIL said the impugned mechanism creates an alternative route to public employment and violates the guarantees under the Constitution’s Articles 14 and 16, related to the fundamental right to equality. It said the issue is rooted in the expansion of privately managed “venture educational institutions” across Assam, particularly in rural and educationally underserved areas.
The plea said private managing committees initially managed such institutions and appointed their teachers and employees without any prescribed qualifications.
The state government passed the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011, to absorb these teachers into the government system as such institutions expanded. The Gauhati high court struck down the 2011 law and the subsequent amendment laws.
The high court protected the services of those absorbed under the 2011 law after the state government filed a review petition in 2017. The state assured the high court that fresh legislation would be enacted to address the constitutional and legal defects noted.
The PIL said that the defects were not addressed and the 2017 law was passed to allow teachers already absorbed to continue without any reevaluation. It cited a June 2026 Supreme Court order in Najma Khatun versus State of West Bengal. The court in that order refused to protect the appointments carried out without following the prescribed recruitment procedure.
In the 2026 order, the Supreme Court said that public money cannot be utilised to sustain private patronage through a non-competitive and opaque appointment process. It called the appointments in question a “blot on the system”.