Vertical Reservation In Asst Teacher Recruitment Applicable Only After Considering All Qualifications Including Exam Marks: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court has held that reservation under Section 3(6) of the Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994 in the selection of Assistant Teachers in the State shall be applicable at the stage of preparation of merit list after including the result of the Assistant Teachers Recruitment Examination (ATRE) along with other qualification.Section 3(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994 prescribed the percentage of vacancies to be reserved for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class candidates at the stage of direct recruitment. Section 3(6) provides that if any reserved category candidate under the Section gets selected based on merits in an open competition with the general candidates, he/she shall not be adjusted against the vacancies for the reserved category candidates. The bench comprising Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Brij Raj Singh held that:“The marks derived on the basis of the entire process i.e. ATRE-2019 coupled with other criteria of educational and training record would serve the broader and real object of Section 3(6) of the Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994”Factual BackgroundActing under the U.P. Basic Education Act, of 1972, the State Government framed Service Rules 1981 for the selection and recruitment of Assistant Teachers in the primary schools run by the State. Rule 8 of the said Rules prescribed qualifications for appointment of the Assistant Teachers. Rule 9 provided for reservation and Rule 14 provided for procedure of appointment on the post of Assistant Teacher.Thereafter, the U.P. Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994 was enacted to provide equal opportunity to reserved category candidates seeking appointment to posts of Assistant Teachers. Subsequently, a government order dated 25.03.1994 was issued which allowed migration of Meritorious Reserved Candidates even if the benefit of relaxation has been taken by the reserved category candidates.In 2011, the State Government amended the Service Rules 1981 to include the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) as the minimum qualification for Assistant Teachers, to improve the standard of basic education Teachers. The amendment was upheld by the Supreme Court with certain “beneficial directions” for the Shiksha Mitra. Subsequently, Rule 8(1)(ii)(a) of the Service Rules, 1981 was further amended to include passing the Assistant Teachers Recruitment Examination as a mandatory qualification for appointment as Assistant Teacher. Rule 14 and its Appendix were amended to take 60% of the ATRE marks as weightage. After the notification for the first ATR Examination, the same was removed as a minimum qualification but was added as a step in the selection process under Rule 14. Subsequently, while deciding to fill up 69,000 vacancies with ATRE, the State Government did not mention any compartmentalization of candidates for or implementing vertical reservation. However, vide an advertisement it was stated that the minimum qualifying marks for the unreserved category was 65% and for the reserved category was 60%. It was stated that this was for classification and not reservation. It was also clarified that passing ATRE was only an eligibility criterion and did not accrue any right to appointment. Another amendment was carried out in 2019 by which a pre-qualification for appearing in the ATRE was added retrospectively from 28.06.2018, which was the date of the notification. Upon challenge to the notification, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court held that “"ATRE" was only a qualifying examination and was not part of the recruitment process because it was meant only for attaining eligibility in order to classify the reserved and unreserved candidates to be considered for recruitment.” This was upheld by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, ATRE was conducted where 1,46,060 were found eligible. 2 select lists were published, however, allegedly, reserved candidates were not given due representation as per their quota selecting more than 50% general category candidates. Accordingly, the Meritorious Reserved Candidates were placed in a reserved category instead of a general category and did not get reservations as per Section 3 of the 1994 Act. Feeling aggrieved, certain reserved category candidates approached the High Court. In a press note, the State Government admitted that the 1994 was not implemented properly and a fresh list was issued granting 6800 more appointments to the reserved category candidates. The Single Judge, in writ jurisdiction, held that candidates could not migrate from one category to another based on their merits. It was held that the marks obtained by the reserved category...

Vertical Reservation In Asst Teacher Recruitment Applicable Only After Considering All Qualifications Including Exam Marks: Allahabad HC

Upasna Agrawal

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