SC upholds HP govt decision of appointing of primary, para teachers

The Supreme Court Friday upheld the decision to appoint and regularise teachers in Himachal Pradesh under various schemes saying they were done as per the polices and cannot be termed as illegal.

The top court refused to interfere with the order of Himachal Pradesh High Court by which it had rejected the challenges made to the appointment of teachers under Primary Assistant Teachers (PAT) scheme, Para Teachers Policy and other schemes.

A bench of Justices M M Shantanagoudar and R Subhas Reddy dealt with all the schemes for appointment of teachers in the state and said, Having regard to material placed before this Court and having regard to reasons recorded in the impugned order by the High Court, we are of the view that no case is made out to interfere with the impugned judgment of the High Court.

The bench noted that the schemes in question were notified in 2001 and 2003 under which appointments were made for PAT and teachers in other categories while petitions challenging the appointments were filed in 2012-13.

Such a writ petition which was filed by the petitioners who came to be qualified only in the year 2011 are not entitled for any relief on the ground of unexplained laches and inordinate delay of about more than 10 years in approaching the court for questioning the appointments, the bench said.

Dealing with the PAT scheme, the bench said that it was notified on August 27, 2003 to compulsorily enrol children in schools for elementary and primary education in the remote areas to achieve the goals as set by the government while enacting The Himachal Pradesh Compulsory Primary Education Act, 1997 for achieving 100 per cent enrolment.

It noted that as per the regular Recruitment Rules the requisite qualification for the post of Junior Basic Training (JBT) teacher during the relevant time was 10+2 with 50 per cent marks and JBT certificate. Of the 3,294 candidates, who are still working, all have acquired the professional qualification of diploma in elementary education or have undergone Professional Development Programme for Elementary Teachers.

...we are of the view that when the appointees appointed under the scheme have completed more than almost 15 years of service now and also have acquired the professional qualifications, they cannot be denied regularisation at this point of time," the bench said.

"As the appointments were made as per the schemes notified by the Government such appointments cannot be treated as illegal, if at all they can be considered irregular, it said.

The top court said it is difficult to disbelieve the submission of state in absence of any counter affidavit that in view of the hard topography, tribal areas, large number of vacancies, single-teacher schools and to achieve the object of the Act, such steps of appointments of teachers were taken.

The bench further said that as per the materials placed on record, it is clear all the persons who were recruited as Para Teachers under the 2003 policy were fully qualified as per the Recruitment and Promotion Rules.

The bench said it is true that in the initial schemes notified by the government there was a condition that such appointees should not seek regularisation or absorption but at the same time for no fault of theirs, they cannot be denied regularisation or absorption.

It is in view of the requirement of the State, their services were extended from time to time and now all the appointees have completed more than 15 years of service. For majority of the appointed teachers under the various schemes benefit was already extended and some leftover candidates were denied on account of interim orders passed by this Court, it said.

The bench also rejected the submission of petitioners that such scheme for appointments and regularization were formulated by the state to make back-door entries and said that all the appointed candidates are working for the meagre salaries pursuant to schemes notified by the government.