The selection and recruitment to the posts of BT Assistants and Secondary Grade Teachers will be subject to the result of a batch of writ petitions challenging the selection, the Madras High Court has said.
After hearing the submission of the counsel for Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB), the first Bench of Chief Justice RK Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan made the condition, on Wednesday. The public interest writ petitions will be taken up again on November 18.
According to one petitioner’s advocate M Palanimuthu, the TRB had not followed the guidelines issued by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) on April 1, 2012. The guidelines included relaxation of up to 5 per cent in the qualifying marks for SC/STs and the disabled. Following this guideline, the TRBs in 11 States including the neighbouring States of Andhra and Kerala had given 5 to 20 per cent relaxation for SC/STs and physically challenged persons.
An advertisement issued on May 22 this year did not mention anything about the reservation for appointment of 22,000 BT Assistants and 2,000 Secondary Grade Teachers. If the relaxation in qualifying marks was given to these groups, there was no need for holding the Teacher Eligibility Test, the petitioner contended.