Expedite appointment of teachers selected via TET: Madras HC

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court (MHC) directed the state government to continue the process of appointing over 400 candidates who were selected in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) between 2014 and 2017 as secondary grade teachers or graduate assistants, expeditiously.

Observing that the appointment process was left midway in 2017, the first division bench of acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq wrote that the process should be completed without further delay and the present number of vacancies shall not be cited as a reason for not giving effect to the direction and admitted a batch of petitions moved by TET teachers.

In 2010, the then Union government implemented the Right to Education (RTE) Act which emphasised that one of the essential qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in any of the schools is that he or she should have passed the TET exam.

According to the act, the State government constituted a teachers’ recruitment board to conduct the TET exam and to select the candidates for the teacher post. However, in 2017 the government stopped midway through the process of appointing eligible candidates.

Subsequently, in 2018, a separate order was passed by the State introducing competitive exams to appoint the teachers to ensure equity and fairness.

Due to this order, several candidates who were selected through the TET exam couldn’t secure an appointment as a government teacher.

Hence the aggrieved candidates approached the High Court seeking relief as they were denied appointment for more than a decade.