Rajasthan High Court - Jodhpur

Vikram Singh vs The State Of Rajasthan ... on 10 October, 2024

Author: Farjand Ali

Bench: Farjand Ali

[2024:RJ-JD:41892]

      HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN AT
                       JODHPUR
                S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 19704/2023

Vikram Singh S/o Sohan Singh Raika, Aged About 26 Years, R/o
Plot No. 120 Khasara No. 1, Prabhat Nagar, Banar Road, Jodhpur
(Raj.)
                                                                       ----Petitioner
                                       Versus
1.       The    State      Of     Rajasthan,         Through        The   Secretary,
         Department Of Secondary Education, Government Of
         Rajasthan, Jaipur.
2.       The Deputy Secretary-1 (Administration), Department Of
         Education, Government Of Rajasthan, Jaipur.
3.       The Director, Secondary Education, Rajasthan Bikaner.
4.       Mukesh Saran S/o L. R. Choudhary, Presently Posted At
         Govt. Sr. Sec. School, Pipad Road, Jodhpur (Raj)
                                                                    ----Respondents


For Petitioner(s)            :     Mr. Bharat Devasi
For Respondent(s)            :     Mr. N.K. Mehta, DyGC



                HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE FARJAND ALI

Order

10/10/2024

1. The petitioner herein has preferred the instant writ petition

under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking a direction

for the respondents to consider his candidature for appointment

on the post of Assistant Teacher Level-I in pursuance of the

advertisement dated 02.11.2022 issued by the respondent

department.

2. Briefly stated, facts of the case are that the respondent

Education Department issued an advertisement for filling up the

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posts of Assistant Teacher Level-I and II for Mahatma Gandhi

(English Medium) Schools under the Rajasthan Contractual Hiring

to Civil Posts Rules, 2022 on contract basis. The eligibility criteria

prescribed for the post was that an aspirant must have passed

Senior Secondary or equivalent examination with English medium

with minimum 50% marks and must have Diploma in Elementary

Education and he must have passed REET Level-I examination

with minimum prescribed marks, of which validity must not have

expired. The petitioner is a person belonging to Most Backward

Class category. He is having the qualification of B.Com., BSTC and

have secured 82 marks out of 150 marks in REET. Considering

himself to be eligible for appointment, he applied in pursuance of

the aforesaid advertisement. However, when the respondents did

not consider his candidature on the ground that he was not

eligible for appointment since a candidate belonging to reserved

category must have secured minimum 55% marks in the REET

and since the petitioner is having only 54.66% marks, therefore,

he was not given appointment. Being aggrieved of the same the

petitioner preferred a writ petition bearing S.B. Civil Writ Petition

No.7490/2023, wherein an interim order was passed in his favour

directing the respondents to provisionally allow him to appear in

counselling/document verification process. Later on the

respondent authorities, in accordance with the guidelines of the

NCTE, issued the certificate declaring the petitioner "Eligible for

Level-I" in REET-2022, hence, in view of the subsequent events,

the petitioner withdrew the aforesaid writ petition. Be that as it

may, the petitioner participated in the selection process and

according to the criteria fixed, he secured 61.09775 marks,

[2024:RJ-JD:41892] (3 of 7) [CW-19704/2023]

whereas the cut off marks for the category of MBC General and

Female candidates is 51.7395. The respondent authorities issued

a letter dated 19.05.2023 directing the selected candidates to

submit their registration for verification of documents, but the

name of the petitioner was not included in the said list. On

approaching the respondents, he was informed that on account of

condition No.3(1) of the advertisement prescribing minimum 55%

in the REET Examination, which the petitioner is not fulfilling, his

candidature cannot be considered for appointment on the post of

Assistant Teacher Level-I. Being aggrieved of the same, he

preferred the instant writ petition.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the action of

the respondents in not considering the candidature of the

petitioner despite being fully eligible is illegal, unjust and arbitrary.

He submits that on the one hand the nodal agency appointed by

the State Government has issued the eligibility certificate to the

petitioner for the REET Examination, 2022, but on the other hand

the Education Department of the State Government is not

accepting the same. He submits that the issue raised by the

petitioner in the instant writ petition is squarely covered by the

decision rendered by a co-ordinate Bench of this court at Jaipur in

a batch of writ petitions led by Rajesh Kumar Yadav & Ors. Vs.

State of Rajasthan & Ors. [S.B. Civil Writ Petition

No.15541/2022], wherein the respondents have been directed

to consider the candidature of similarly situated persons for

appointment on the post of Teacher Grade II Level I and Level II.

[2024:RJ-JD:41892] (4 of 7) [CW-19704/2023]

With these submissions, learned counsel for the petitioner prays

for acceptance of the writ petition.

4. Per contra, learned DyGC submits that the recruitment

advertisement clearly mentions the eligibility criteria required for

the post of Assistant Teacher (Level-I), as per which a candidate

belonging to reserved category must have passed the REET

Examination with minimum 55% marks. Admittedly, the

petitioner has secured only 54.67% marks in the said examination

and as such, he is not eligible for appointment and thus, there is

no fault in the action of the respondents in not considering the

candidature of the petitioner. He further submits that if at this

stage of recruitment process, any relaxation is given in the

eligibility criteria, the same would amount to discrimination with

the aspirants who did not apply because of not attaining the

requisite marks in the REET Examination. He, thus, prayed for

dismissal of the writ petition.

5. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the

material placed on the record.

6. The backdrop of the case is that the National Council for

Teachers Education (NCTE) vide notification dated 23.08.2010 laid

down the minimum qualification for a person to be eligible for

appointment as Teacher of Class I to VIII. It had been, inter alia,

provided that one of the essential qualifications for a person to be

eligible for appointment as a Teacher in any of the school referred

to in Clause (n) of Section 2 of RTE Act is that, he should pass the

[2024:RJ-JD:41892] (5 of 7) [CW-19704/2023]

Teacher Eligibility Test with minimum 60% marks. It was further

provided that the school managements (Government, Local

Bodies, Government Aided and Unaided) may consider giving

concession to persons belonging to SC/ST, OBC, differently abled

person etc. in accordance with law. The Government of

Rajasthan extended 5% relaxation to reserved category

candidates, thus, for REET-2022, candidate from reserved

category are required to score 55% marks out of 150 marks for

issuance of REET pass certificate. It is relevant to note here that

55% of 150 marks comes out to be 82.5 marks but since for each

correct answer 1 mark is awarded and no negative marks are to

be awarded for the wrong answers. Thus, it is not possible for a

candidate to score 82.5 marks, i.e. 55%. In order to eliminate

this anomaly of impossibility to score exact 55% marks, the CBSE

Board and the other State Boards have adopted the rule of

rounding off and with such rationality, in order to give benefit of

reservation, candidates belonging to reserved categories have

been declared TET pass on scoring 82 marks out of 150 marks,

which would amount to 54.67%. The nodal agency of the

Government of Rajasthan, i.e. the Board of Secondary Education

Rajasthan, Ajmer, has also issued eligibility certificate to the

candidates who have scored 82 marks out of 150 marks. It is not

disputed that the petitioner belongs to reserved category and is

entitled for the benefit of concession in minimum marks required

for being declared eligible in REET Examination and accordingly,

he was declared eligible by the Board. Once one agency of the

State Government has declared the petitioner eligible for Level-I in

REET Examination, it is not open for the another agency of the

[2024:RJ-JD:41892] (6 of 7) [CW-19704/2023]

Government to come out and say that he is ineligible on account

of not attaining exactly 55% marks in REET. It is worthwhile to

note here that REET is merely a qualifying test and a candidate

must fulfill the eligibility criteria prescribed by the State

Government for appointment on a particular post of teacher. If a

candidate is fulfilling the eligibility criteria prescribed by the State

and his name finds place in the merit list, then there is no reason

for the State Government to deny consideration of his candidature

citing a reason that he has not attained the minimum required

marks in REET, more particularly when a certificate has been

issued declaring him eligible for Level-I.

7. The controversy involved in the instant writ petition is

squrely covered by the a decision rendered by a co-ordinate Bench

of this court at Jaipur in the case of Rajesh Kumar Yadav

(supra), wherein the issue has been dealt with in extenso and

while allowing the writ petitions, the following directions have

been issued :-

"(a) Writ petitioners who allegedly belongs to reserve category i.e. of SC/ST, OBC, MBC and EWS and who have scored 82 marks out of 150 marks in REET-2022 are entitled to be declared pass and for issuance of REET pass certificate in favour of each petitioner.

(b) Writ petitioners who have participated in the recruitment process for appointment on the post of Teacher Grade III Level. I and Level II pursuant to advertisement 2022 issued by the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board and have qualified the written examination of their respective level (Level I or Level

[2024:RJ-JD:41892] (7 of 7) [CW-19704/2023]

II) will be considered for appointment on merits treating them as REET- 2022 pass.

(c) The Government of Rajasthan, Education Department is directed to take up the issue in respect of candidates belonging to reserved categories to declare them pass on securing 82 marks, qua minimum requirement of 82.5 marks out of 150 marks in REET-

2022 by applying the rule of rounding off of marks and by taking into consideration observations made by this Court in the above paras the judgment as well as taking into consideration view of NCTE in the letter dated 10.01.2014 of the NCTE extracted hereinabove and the decision be taken forthwith preferably within a period of 30 days in the beneficial interest of candidates belonging to reserve category."

7. In view of the discussion made hereinabove and in light of

the judgment referred to supra, this writ petition deserves to be

and is hereby allowed. The respondents are directed to consider

candidature of the petitioner for appointment on the post of

Assistant Teacher Level-I in pursuance of the advertisement dated

02.11.2022 (Annex.2) treating him REET Examination pass and if

he is fulfilling all the other requisite eligibility criteria and his name

found place in the merit list, he shall be given appointment.

8. No order as to costs.

(FARJAND ALI),J 297-Pramod/-