69,000 assistant teacher recruitment reservation case: Supreme Court reserves verdict on 19,000 reserved category seats

Lucknow. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has reserved its verdict on the issue of reservation in 19,000 reserved category seats in the 69,000 assistant teacher recruitment case. A single-judge bench headed by Justice Om Prakash Shukla heard the petitions filed by the unreserved category candidates in the matter on Thursday. Now the court will decide on these.

The petitioners alleged that candidates belonging to the reserved category are being given double reservation by exempting marks in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and Assistant Teacher Examination. Regarding this, the candidates of the unreserved category filed a petition and argued through their advocate Amarendra Nath Tripathi. On which the counsel for the state government told the court that teacher eligibility test is a qualifying examination and the exemption or reservation of marks given in it is not applicable at the stage of assistant teacher recruitment examination. It’s not part of that test.

In response, the petitioner’s lawyer said that when the Teacher Eligibility Test is not a part of the Assistant Teacher Recruitment Examination, then why are they given exemption in marks in the Teacher Eligibility Test on the basis of reservation? On this, the government lawyer said that double reservation is not being given to reserved category candidates in this recruitment. In fact, this recruitment is being done under the Basic Education Rules 1981 and Reservation Rules 1994. In such a situation, the petitions filed on double reservation by the unreserved category candidates have no significance.

The court reserved the verdict after hearing the case. He also said that the lawyers of the parties can file their written arguments within a week.