UP government to appeal high court order staying recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers

UP government has ordered cancellation of the counselling sessions for candidates who passed the examination.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday said it would appeal against an order passed by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court which stayed the appointment process of 69,000 assistant teachers in the state, before a larger bench.

The UP government has said it will approach a larger bench of the high court against the verdict. (PTI Photo/file)

Uttar Pradesh’s basic education minister Satish Chand Dwivedi said the government, for now, had issued a directive for cancellation of counselling and document verification of selected candidates across the state.

“We have informed the basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) to stop counseling and document verification of candidates after Wednesday’s high court order. The government will soon appeal before the larger bench,” the minister said.

The first government notification to fill the said vacant posts was issued on December 1, 2018. The posts were advertised on December 6, 2018 and the examination was held on January 6, 2019.

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A day after the examination on January 7, 2019, the passing criteria was revised to 65% (97 out of 150 marks) for general candidates and 60% (90 out of 150 marks) for reserved category candidates which was challenged in the high court by para teachers. The court on March 29, 2019 gave a verdict in favour of the candidates and set the criteria of 40% and 45% respectively for reserved and general category candidates.

Following the verdict, the result was announced on May 12, in which, a total of 1.46 lakh candidates, amounting to 36.6 per cent of the total candidates appeared, were declared as qualified. Around 4.31 lakh candidates had registered for the recruitment exam including nearly 4.09 lakh candidates who actually took the test held on January 6, 2019, said a government official.

Earlier today, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court stayed the recruitment process on a writ petition filed by Amita Tripathi and others while fixing July 12 as the next date of hearing and directing the petitioners to submit their objections to the state government within a week.

The petitioners had raised a question mark on the answer sheet used in the January examination for the recruitment of the assistant basic teachers. The court has directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to appoint a panel of experts to study the question paper, provisional answer key along with the objections received from the candidates within 4 weeks and submit a report to the state government to be produced before the court.