SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 10: A hearing based on a writ was held via video conferencing in the court of Justice Dr. S N Pathak in the Jharkhand High Court in regard to the delay in appointments of Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT) case on Thursday. After hearing all the parties related to the issue, the court has reserved its decision.
Notably, the case is related to advertisement number 21 of 2016 for the appointment of TGT for different subjects in scheduled and non-scheduled districts and the subsequent delay in hiring the teachers. According to advocate Amritansh Vats, lawyer for Rajeev Mishra and others who had filed the writ, around three to four exams have been conducted by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission and results have been published. Appointments in nine non-scheduled districts have been held while teachers have been appointed for the remaining two non-scheduled districts.
The government in the matter said to the court that the delay has been caused because the matter for scheduled districts is pending in the Apex Court. As per the decision of the HC in the case of Soni Kumari v State, wherein initially 100 percent locals had been given reservation for hiring as teachers and anybody could apply for this. This decision by the government was challenged in the High Court by Soni Kumari. A bench of three judges in HC here had stated that reservation cannot exceed more than 50 percent in any case, over two years ago. This was a decision for scheduled districts, whereas for the non scheduled districts, the HC had said that the appointments may continue as they should have. This decision was then challenged by the government in the Supreme Court.
The appellants claimed that the case pending in the SC is for scheduled districts thus the appointments in the nonscheduled districts should not have been delayed as there were no legal impediments in the matter.
Advocate Vats in the matter said, “With respect to the subject Sanskrit, appointments have already been made in two non-scheduled districts within the past years including Godda and Deoghar. If this is the case, then why is the government not appointing teachers for the remaining nine districts. Appointments have been made in all districts in case of History and Civics teachers, based on the same advertisement. Such discrimination is a violation of Article 14 and 16. Hence, directions should be issued for appointments of teachers.”
