Teachers’ recruitment exam: High court rules in favour of state, BPSC to go ahead with exams

Ruling in favour of the Bihar government, the Patna high court stated that the “decision to promote or make fresh recruitment is in the exclusive domain of the government” even as the decision came as a jolt for the proposed teachers’ stir on July 11-12 during the monsoon session, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

The high court order said that “the decision to promote or make fresh recruitment is in the exclusive domain of the government and any aspirant can only claim for a consideration, subject to eligibility, when such recruitments are made”. With this development, decks have been cleared for the teachers’ recruitment exam from August 24-27 and the state education department has asked the universities to keep the colleges free to hold the exams during that period.

“As important exams are scheduled by the Bihar Public Service Commission during that period, requiring all the classrooms, you all are requested to keep the buildings free during the period,” said the letter from higher education director to all the registrars.

The high court was hearing a bunch of petitions and the order for the same was uploaded on its official site by Friday evening.

During the hearing, the high court rejected the applications praying for interim stay on the operation of the Bihar State School Teachers (Appointment, Transfer, Disciplinary Proceedings and Service Conditions) Rules 2023 and the process commenced for selection and recruitment of teachers, maintaining that it finds no reason to interfere on the grounds raised by the petitioners.

The Bihar government had brought out an advertisement on June 30 inviting applications for appointment to more than 1.70-lakh posts in the primary, secondary and senior secondary schools within the state. The same was challenged by the working teachers appointed since 2006 through Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) and urban local bodies (ULBs) and those who applied under an advertisement of 2019 for selection to the post of teacher. Citing the 2019 Supreme Court order on the contempt petition by Bihar teachers seeking ‘equal pay for equal work’, the bench of justice Vinod Chandran and justice Partha Sarthy said, “The mere fact that a selection was conducted, does not create any vested right in the applicants to get appointment to the posts which were notified, if the rules of recruitment and the terms of service undergo a change”and would not militate against the new rules or the appointing authority proceeding for a fresh selection under such newly promulgated rules”.

The HC held the opinion that the grounds raised for the interim stay of the 2023 rules and the notification issued pursuant to the same, calling for applications for appointment, “cannot be sustained”.

“While the appellants are concerned with the fact that every teacher appointed after 2006; coming to more than four lakhs, will not eventually get appointment, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact of teeming millions of the unemployed remaining as such even after the recruitment to more than 1.70 lakh vacancies are concluded. Earlier, the apex court had also observed that though the nature of duties performed by the teachers appointed through PRIs and ULBs were same or similar to those performed by the government teachers, the mode of recruitment and standards of selection were different,” the bench observed.

Maintaining that the state having laid foundation, that, too, in accordance with the Right to Education Act, the observed that the “state is now attempting to have a more comprehensive mode of recruitment of teachers with higher standards; which cannot at all be faulted”.

“Neither the persons who attained eligibility in the earlier selection nor the already appointed teachers can claim appointment absolutely and unconditionally in the new recruitment process,” the court added.

Reacting to the development, former MP and president of the Bihar Secondary Teachers’ Association Shatrughan Prasad Singh, however, said their fights would continue both legally as well as on the streets. “The next date of hearing is August 22. The government cannot humiliate its teachers and also hope for quality education”.