MHC upholds govt order on TET with regard to weightage marks

The Madras High Court brought to an end a raging debate over government norms for selection of school teachers by upholding the policy giving 60 per cent weightage for Teacher Eligibility Test marks and 40 per cent weightage for marks obtained in Plus Two, degree and B.Ed courses.
A division bench, comprising Justices Satish K Agnihotri and M M Sundresh, concurred with submissions of Tamil Nadu Advocate General A L Somayaji and dismissed a batch of petitions and appeals in this regard.
"The 40 per cent of marks has been divided between the marks obtained in Plus 2 examination, degree and B.Ed examination. Therefore, the authorities have taken into consideration three different examinations. Such a yardstick adopted can only be fair and equitable," the bench said.

Two changes made after teacher selection tests were completed led to the ongoing agitations by candidates who had cleared TET or enjoy seniority in employment exchanges.
First, government said TET scores alone would not suffice for teacher posts and later it granted five-mark relaxation for reserved communities. As a result, 60 per cent of TET marks and 40 per cent of qualification exam marks were taken into account.
While 60 marks was cut off for other communities, the minimum mark was brought down to 55 for reserved communities.

Assailing the changes, the petitioners and appellants submitted that the state government did not have the power or authority to reduce the qualifying pass mark and said rights accrued to them could not be taken away by a subsequent action of the government.

The AG, however, argued that the government had statutory backing to modify the selection procedure, including fixing of qualification and marks.
Noting that the new policy would give more candidates an opportunity to participate, he said its rational yardstick could not be questioned by candidates.
The judges agreed with him and said the relaxation in the qualifying marks did not take away the rights of petitioner candidates from being considered on merit. It did not dilute, vary or modify the status of petitioner-candidates, they said.
"We also find that the methodology adopted by the authorities is more rational compared to those adopted in some other states such as Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal where less percentage of marks had been given to the marks obtained in the Teacher Eligibility Test," the bench said.