Case: Omkar Singh and Ors Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and Ors

4.2. The NCTE vide notification dated 23.08.2010 laid down the qualifications for minimum qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in class I to VII asI) ClassesSenior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and a 2-year diploma in Elementary Education (by whatever nameSecondary (or its equivalent) with at least 45% marks and 2-year Diploma in Elementary Education (by whatever name known), in accordance with the NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure), RegulationsSecondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 4 year Bachelor of Elementary Education (B.Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 2-year Diploma in Education (SpecialPass in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), to be conducted by the appropriate Government in accordance with the guideline framed by the NCTE for theSc. With at least 45% marks and 1 year Bachelor in Education (B. Ed.), in accordance with the NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) Regulations issued from time to time in thisSecondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 4 year Bachelor in Elementary Education (B.Sc. With at least 50% marks and 1-year B. Ed. (SpecialPass in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) to be conducted by the appropriate Government in accordance with the guidelines framed by the NCTE for the purpose.The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 has been further amended by inserting a second proviso Under Section 23 on 01.04.2015 asAs per the guidelines framed by NCTE for conducting the TET, the rationale for including the TET as a minimum qualification for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher is given in the Guidelines for conducting Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) are extractedThe rationale for including the TET as a minimum qualification for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher is asIt would bring national standards and benchmark of teacher quality in the recruitmentIt would induce teacher education institutions and students from these institutions to further improve their performanceThe eligibility for the TET examination has been provided in para 5 of the Guideline asThe following persons shall be eligible for appearing in theA person who has acquired the academic and professional qualifications specified in the NCTE Notification dated 23rd AugustA person who is pursuing any of the teacher education courses (recognized by the NCTE or the RCI, as the case may be) specified in the NCTE Notification dated 23rd AugustIt is apparent that the condition No. (i) of para 5 is that a person who has acquired academic and professional qualifications as per notification dated 23.8.2010 can appear in the TET examination. As per para 5 (ii), a person who is "pursuing" any of the teacher education courses recognized by NCTE or the RCI, as specified in Notification dated 23.08.2010 shall be eligible for appearing in the TET. As per para 5 (iii), the eligibility condition for appearing in TET may be relaxed in respect of State/UT which has been granted relaxation Under Section 23(2) of the RTE Act of 2009. The relaxation will be specified in the notification issued by the Central Government.In the State of U.P., a Government Order dated 7.9.2011 had been issued for conducting TET which provided that a candidate having B.A., B. Sc., B. Com. and TTC passed are eligible to appear in the TET and subsequently, the State of U.P. issued another Government Order dated 17.9.2011 in the modification of the earlier Government Order dated 7.9.2011, whereby the eligibility guidelines came to be amended in pursuance of the NCTE notification dated 29.7.2011 and in place of B.A., B. Sc., B. Com. the words "Graduate" came to be substituted. Thereafter, the aforesaid Government Orders dated 7.9.2011 and 17.9.2011 came to be amended vide G.O. dated 4.10.2011 and for that examination, such candidates were authorized to appear who have passed TTC recognized by the NCTE or who were appearing in the last year examination of TTC. The last date of submission of the applications for UPTET was 18.10.2011. The UPTET examination was held on 13.11.2011. On 25.11.2011 UPTET examination result was declared. At this stage, it is required to be noted that similarly CTET examination was conducted by the Central Government authorizing such candidates to appear who were pursuing the TTC but have not passed the TTC examination. Thereafter on 17.4.2013, the government order was issued for conducting UPTET examination 2013 and the consequential office orders were issued.After a period of two years-in the year 2017, a bunch of petitions came to be filed before the High Court challenging the appointments/appointment process initiated by the State Government by G.O. dated 11.7.2013. Twofold submissions/grievances were made, firstly, that the appointments have been offered to persons who are ineligible in terms of the qualifications specified, inasmuch as they do not have Science or Mathematics as one of the subjects in the Graduation Degree, and secondly, the persons who had not passed an examination or were not in the final year of their TTC had also appeared in the TET examination, which was impermissible, and that, such persons have also been appointed. The learned Single Bench of the High Court disposed of the aforesaid petitions vide judgment and order dated 8.5.2018. The learned Single Judge observed and held asview of the notification issued by the NCTE dated 11th of February, 2011, as well as the Government Order issued on 15th of May, 2013, the inescapable conclusion culled out from the provision is that only those persons are eligible to appear in the TET examination who have acquired academic and professional qualification and have either obtained training qualification or are pursuing any of the teacher educationview of the interpretation given to the word "pursuing" by this Court, which stands implemented vide Government Order dated 15th of May, 2013, it is clear that only those persons, who are in the final year of their teacher training courses, alone, would be entitled to appear in the TETappointing authority, therefore, is directed to ensure that before appointment letters are issued to the candidate, he/she must have passed TET after completing a training course or such persons were in the final year of their training examination. A person, who does not come in either of the two categories, would not be issued any appointment order. The State Government shall implement its Government Order of 15th of May, 2013 and circulars would be issued for its strict compliance by the appointing authorities. The appointing authorities shall also clearly state such fact in the appointment letter issued to the candidates appointed as Assistanttakes the Court to the last limb of Petitioners grievance, regarding those who have been appointed as Assistant Teachers, even while they had not even completed the first year of their teacher training course. By way of illustration, some of the Petitioners have annexed materials to show that appointment orders have been issued to persons who have passed TET even before completing the first year of their training course. Such appointment orders would be inconsistent with the Government Orders, already issued by the State Government, dated 15th of May, 2013 as well as NCTE circular dated 11th of February,therefore, is reserved to the Petitioners to challenge such specific appointments before the appointing authorities, i.e., the District Basic Education Officer concerned, at the first instance, who shall examine such individual grievances on facts after affording the opportunity of hearing to the selectedThe judgment and order passed by the learned Single Bench dated 8.5.2018 was the subject matter of appeals before the Division Bench of the High Court. By the impugned common judgment and order, the Division Bench has opined differently asperusal of Clause 5 (ii) of the notification dated 11th February 2011 issued by the NCTE indicates that a person who is pursuing any of the teachers training courses specified in the NCTE Noti 23.8.2010 dated 23rd August 2010 would also be eligible. It appears to us that this benefit was considered to be given to such candidates whose teacher training course result had not been declared by the last date specified for filling the online form for TET examination. That is why such persons who were pursuing the teacher training course could appear at the TETour opinion "pursuing any of the teacher training course" should not be restricted only to such persons who were appearing in the examination of the teacher training course. It should also include such persons who have studying in the course but examination had not been held. But what is important is that such persons should have been declared successful in the teachers training course before the date on which the examination result of TET is declared. If such interpretation is not given then even if a candidate does not pass the teachers training course, the TET Certificate would be issued to him and this would enable him to seek appointment as an Assistant Teacher even though he has not passed, the qualifying examination. This Clause merely facilitates such person to appear at the TET examination even if the result of the teacher training course has not been declared. This interpretation would subserve the purpose for which such persons were considered eligible. To give any other interpretation would defeat the purpose of the facility that has been provided to suchThe impugned common judgment and order passed by the Division Bench of the High Court is the subject matter of the present appeals.

Reasoning:
Looking to the clear wordings in Clause 5 (ii) of the NCTE guidelines and the phrase used is "pursuing", the High Court is not justified in adding the additional riders, such as, that to become eligible for appearing in the TET examination, a candidate must have appeared in the TTC examination and the result have not been declared by the last date specified for filling up the online form for TET examination. As per the dictionary meaning, the word "pursuing" means undergoing and/or proceeding further. Therefore, a candidate who has been admitted in any of the TTC and undergoing the teacher training course (TTC) can be said to be "pursuing" such teacher training course and shall be eligible to appear in the TET examination, irrespective of the fact that whether, by the last date specified for filling up the online form for TET examination, he has, in fact, appeared in the examination of the concerned teacher training course and the result is awaited. "Pursuing" the requisite teacher training course is sufficient to make such a candidate eligible to appear in the TET examination. Therefore, on a fair reading of Clause 5 (ii) of the NCTE guidelines, a person who has been admitted in TTC and is pursuing, he/she can appear in the TET examination. In the present case, admittedly, on the cut-off date, all the candidates were pursuing the concerned teacher training course. Thereafter, all of them have cleared the TET examination as well as have cleared the concerned teacher training course. At the time when they were appointed as Assistant Teachers, all of them fulfilled the eligibility criteria for appointment as Assistant Teachers. All of them have passed the TET examination and have also passed the TTC as per the requisite eligibility criteria. Thus, in our view, ousting certain incumbents by the High Court cannot be sustained since they were pursuing TTC and they were clearly eligible to appear in the TET examination and have passed it while pursuing the requisite professional qualification for being eligible to be appointed as Assistantit is clear that the respective Appellants herein whose appointments were challenged were eligible to appear in the TET examination at the time they were "pursuing" the concerned TTC. Thus, we hold that the decision of the High Court, to the aforesaid extent, is not sustainable. The impugned orders of the High Court are accordingly modified to the aforesaid extent.