MADURAI/CHENNAI: Justice MS Ramesh of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday stayed an order issued by the State government that permitted Chief Educational Officers to appoint Bachelor of Teaching (BT) assistants, and secondary grade and postgraduate teachers on a temporary basis in all districts.
In a related development, Justice Krishnakumar of the principal bench of the court on Friday ordered the Commissioner of School Education to appoint only qualified teachers to the temporary posts and keep the whole process in abeyance until further order.
Justice MS Ramesh passed the order on a petition filed by the TET Passed Candidates Welfare Association in Madurai that challenged the government’s order dated June 23, 2022, on the grounds that minimum qualification of passing the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) had not been made mandatory for the temporary appointment and no public notification had been issued about the recruitment.
As per the G.O, as many as 13,331 posts, including 4,989 secondary grade teachers, 5,154 BT assistants, and 3,188 post graduate teachers, are to be filled through temporary appointment across the State.
Additional Advocate General Veera Kathiravan argued that the government was planning to issue a public notification in connection with the appointment on July 15, and submitted that any grievance with regard to the notification could be addressed then.
Moreover, it is only a stopgap arrangement, he said. Justice Ramesh, however, opined that the government ought to have fixed the minimum qualification for the appointment and such a temporary arrangement would only lead to multiplicity of litigations in the future. He ordered an interim stay and adjourned the case to July 8 for further hearing.
Meanwhile, Justice Krishnakumar, in his interim order, asked authorities concerned to keep application processing in abeyance until further orders. The judge directed the commissioner to issue appropriate revised instructions for submission of applications to district education authorities, who shall forward them to the School Management Committee for consideration and scrutiny. It should also be mentioned that the appointments will be strictly on a temporary basis and subject to the outcome of the orders to be passed in the writ petition, Justice Krishnakumar said. Posting the matter to July 7, he directed the commissioner to file a report.
Several teachers’ associations had opposed the government’s order, saying that it would affect aspiring teachers. The CPM and DYFI had also expressed displeasure over the order. “The government has been shying away from appointing permanent teachers despite thousands of teachers retiring every year. During the 10 years of AIADMK rule, only a few appointments were made,” CPM State secretary K Balakrishnan had said.
SP Velumani case: HC won’t stop DVAC probe
Chennai: The Madras HC has again turned down a plea by former minister SP Velumani to stay DVAC proceedings against him in connection with alleged irregularities in awarding tenders in Chennai and Coimbatore municipal corporations. When a petition seeking to quash the FIR filed by the DVAC against the former minister came up on Friday before Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala, State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah objected to a grant of relief. He also argued against granting a stay on the proceedings. The court posted the minister’s petitions to July 25.