SC reinstates two UP teachers terminated for lacking TET at appointment

New Delhi, Oct 31 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the termination of two assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh who were removed from service in 2018 for not having cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) at the time of their appointment.

A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran allowed the appeal filed by Uma Kant and another against the Allahabad High Court’s orders refusing relief to them, and said the sacked teachers subsequently qualified TET within the statutory grace period.

“We find that the non-interference by the single judge of the high court and the same being affirmed by the division bench of the high court is erroneous as the requirement to qualify TET was to be complied with by March 31, 2019, by when the appellants had undisputedly passed the TET,” the verdict said.

The top court directed the state government to immediately reinstate the teachers, who were represented by senior advocate Amit Anand Tiwari, holding that they had acquired the mandatory qualification within the extended timeline prescribed under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act).

The appellants were selected as assistant teachers in Jwala Prasad Tiwari Junior High School, Bhauti, Kanpur Nagar, following an advertisement issued in July 2011. They joined service on March 17, 2012.

The TET was conducted for the first time in Uttar Pradesh on November 13, 2011.

While one appellant cleared it in November 2011, the other passed in May 2014.

Their services, however, were terminated by the Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) on July 12, 2018, on the ground that they did not possess the TET certificate at the time of appointment.

A single judge of the Allahabad High Court dismissed their petition on March 12, 2024, and a division bench subsequently upheld the decision on May 1, 2024, prompting the teachers to approach the top court.

CJI Gavai, writing the judgement for the bench, noted that the 2017 amendment to Section 23(2) of the RTE Act allowed teachers appointed before March 31, 2015, who did not then possess the minimum qualifications, to acquire them within four years, that is by March 31, 2019.

Since both appellants had cleared TET by 2014, the bench held that they were qualified well before the deadline and could not be treated as unqualified at the time of their termination in 2018.

“We fail to see as to how the appellants can be said to be unqualified on the date of their termination… when undisputedly they had already qualified the TET by March 24, 2014,” the CJI said.

The court found that the termination order was passed solely on grounds of delayed TET qualification and as the state could not justify any other basis for removing them.

Holding that the high court erred in refusing relief, the bench set aside the orders of both the single judge and the division bench, as well as the July 2018 termination order. PTI SJK SJK SKY SKY