Read Time: 07 minutes

Synopsis

In a significant development, the Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government, to prepare a fresh selection list for the recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers on the basis of  Assistant Teachers Recruitment Examination (ATRE) 2019, across the state. This move comes after the court set aside previous selection lists released in June 2020 and January 2022, which had included 6,800 candidates.

"If a reserved category candidate acquires merit equivalent to the merit prescribed for the general category, then Meritorious Reserved Category candidate shall be migrated to the general category as per the provisions contained in Section 3 (6) of the Reservation Act, 1994," court ordered. 

Additionally, the court asserted that the benefits of vertical reservation should also be extended to horizontal reservation categories.

The bench comprising Justice AR Masoodi and Justice Brijraj Singh also instructed the state authorities to finalize the new selection list within a three-month period.

However, to prevent any disruption to students' education, court allowed currently employed assistant teachers to complete the ongoing academic session.

The judgment came in 90 special appeals filed by Mahendra Pal and others, who had challenged a single-judge's judgment from March 13 of the previous year.

The appellants had argued that the reservation system used in the selection process of 69,000 teachers was flawed and questioned the legitimacy of the appointments of the 6,800 reserved category teachers. Though the single judge bench had decided to cancel the selection list from January 5, 2022, for 6,800 reserved category teachers, it had ruled that candidates benefiting from reservations in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) should not be considered for the unreserved category, even if they achieved the general category cut-off marks.

The division bench upheld the single-judge's decision to cancel the selection list from January 5, 2022, but it held that reserved category candidates who obtain merit equal to general candidates should be migrated to the general category if they meet the merit criteria.

It also clarified that "the rule of migration would only come into play on the determination of overall merit of a candidate at the end of the selection process and not at any early stage".

The ATRE was held on January 5, 2019. The results were declared on May 12, 2020, where 1.46 lakh candidates had qualified. On June 1, 2020, the Secretary of the Basic Education Board, Allahabad, delineated the recruitment process. In October 2020, lists of 67,867 selected candidates were published. The remaining 1,133 posts for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates were shown as lying vacant due to the non-availability of candidates from the category.

The selection lists were challenged in the high court, with allegations that candidates from the unreserved category accounted for more than 50% of those selected, depriving reserved category candidates of their rightful representation. The challengers argued that OBC candidates received only 3.86% reservation, far below the mandated 27%, and SC candidates were allocated 16.2% of the posts instead of the required 21%.

During the high court hearing, the state government admitted and later released a press statement that it failed to properly apply the Reservation Act of 1994. As a result, it issued a new selection list on January 5, 2022, adding 6,800 reserved category candidates.

However, on March 13, 2023, a single-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court set aside the previous selection lists. The case again returned to the Allahabad High Court on April 17, 2023, through several petitions challenging the March 13 judgment.

Case Title: Mahendra Pal and others v. State of U.P. and others