HC dismisses petitions on appointment of BT Assistants

Madras High Court today dismissed a batch of 135 petitions seeking a direction to appoint them as B T Assistants in Tamil based on the certificate verification held on May 12, 2010 conducted by Teachers Recruitment Board without insisting on passing of Teacher Eligibility Test.
Passing orders, Justice D Hariparanthaman said if the plea of the petitioners was accepted then more than about 20,000 persons could enter without having minimum qualification of TET as prescribed in Right To Education Act read with National Council For Teacher Education regulations.
He said that the court cannot issue such a direction to appoint them contrary to statutory provisions and the constitutional mandate as held by the Supreme Court.

The quality of persons appointed based on employment exchange seniority and the certificate verification got exposed when TET was conducted, the judge said.
When more than seven lakh persons attended TET held on July 12, 2012 not even one per cent of the candidates passed the test and said that in fact it was less than 0.50 per cent.
Petitioners, who were candidates have claimed appointment to the post of Secondary Grade Teachers or Graduate B T Assistants based on the certificate verification done during 2010-2011 without insisting TET, which was prescribed under the Notification issued by the National Council for Teacher Education under the Right of Children to Free ad compulsory Education Act, 2009.

Advocate General who appeared on behalf of the government submitted that even if the process of appointment to the post of teachers was initiated prior to the date of NCTE notification and candidates were called for certificate verification based on their employment exchange seniority, mere participation in the certificate verification would not give a right to those candidates to claim selection and appointment based on such participation.
The judge observed that the recruitment of teachers cannot be viewed on the basis of seniority in the employment exchange, rather it should be based on paramount interest of the children to give quality education to the children.

The Judge said the petitioners who are all non-selected cannot seek appointment in the future vacancies based on certificate verification, without a Pass in TET.