HC quashes selection of JBT teachers made during Chautala govt

Nearly 14 years after their appointment, 2,800 Junior Basic Teachers (JBT) today lost their job following the Punjab and Haryana High Court's quashing of the selection process made in 2000 during Om Prakash Chautala's regime.
The selected teachers are still in service and as per the High Court's order, services of 2,800 teachers out of the total 3,206, will be terminated.
These teachers had been recruited by the Chautala government in 2000 against the 3,206 vacancies for the JBT teachers advertised by the Haryana Education Department on November 15, 1999.
Justice K Kannan in his 30-page-judgment today, held that there was no doubt that there had been a serious dent to the selection of these teachers and it was seriously vitiated by facts clearly brought out by the CBI investigations and by the nature of defence taken before the Criminal court.

The bench observed that the selection list published, was not genuine and directed the state to prepare a single merit-list on the basis of the academic qualifications, and experience.
The court also made it clear that those who have been appointed but their names were not included in the fresh list, their services will be terminated but no recoveries shall be made for the salary already paid.
The validity of the selection process and the publication of results were brought under scrutiny when some of the candidates who had not been selected, had filed writ petitions alleging grave malpractices.