UP Teacher Recruitment Case: The Supreme Court of India stayed the recent order of the Allahabad High Court in the controversial 69,000 teacher recruitment case in Uttar Pradesh on September 9, 2024. Chief Justice of India stayed the High Court order until further orders and granted another date, September 25, for the next hearing. The CJI asked all parties to file written arguments with a maximum of seven pages for each party and appointed two nodal lawyers to track the case.
Supreme Court Stays Allahabad High Court’s Order on Teacher Recruitment
Coming after Allahabad High Court’s order cancelling the merit lists of June 2020 and January 2022 for not acting in accordance with the rules for reservation, this decision of the Supreme Court can be said to have very far-reaching implications, probably affecting as many as 19,000 teachers who have been in service for the last four years.
The High Court had directed the State of Uttar Pradesh to issue a revised selection list in pursuance to the 2019 Assistant Teacher Recruitment Examination and ordered that candidates belonging to the reservation categories, securing marks equal to that of the candidates of the general category, shall be considered as belonging to the general category.
Supreme Court’s Intervention Amidst Teacher Recruitment Chaos
The order has panicked the serving teachers, who feel that they will be removed on account of the changed merit criteria. The Supreme Court realised that the matter was not so simple and that a detailed scrutiny of the legal aspects was needed before passing the final order. It directed the State Government to file a formal response and sought written submissions from both parties on ongoing review.