Teachers Who Cleared TET Within Extended Time Under RTE Act Can't Be Terminated For Lacking It At Appointment: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has held that teachers who obtained the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualification within the extended time prescribed under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) cannot be terminated merely because they did not possess the qualification at the time of their initial appointment.A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by two assistant teachers, Uma Kant and another, who had been terminated by the Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), Kanpur Nagar, in July 2018 for lacking TET certification when appointed in 2012.BackgroundThe appellants were appointed as Assistant Teachers in Jwala Prasad Tiwari Junior High School, a recognised and aided institution in Kanpur Nagar, pursuant to a recruitment process initiated in 2011. At that time, the TET, introduced by a notification of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) dated August 23, 2010,had only recently been implemented.The first TET in Uttar Pradesh was conducted in November 2011. One of the appellants cleared the test that year, while the other passed in 2014. Despite their qualification before 2015, the BSA terminated their services in 2018, citing non-possession of TET certificates at the time of appointment.Their writ petition challenging the termination was dismissed by a Single Judge of the Allahabad High Court in March 2024, and a Division Bench affirmed that decision in May 2024.Supreme Court's FindingsSetting aside the High Court's rulings, the Supreme Court noted that the 2017 amendment to Section 23 of the RTE Act had given teachers without the requisite qualification as of March 31, 2015, four years to acquire it, i.e., until March 31, 2019.“We fail to see how the appellants can be said to be unqualified on the date of their termination i.e., 12th July 2018, when undisputedly they had already qualified the TET by 2014,” the Bench observed.The Court further noted that there was no other ground cited in the termination order besides the alleged lack of TET qualification.“The requirement to qualify TET was to be complied with by 31st March 2019, by when the appellants had undisputedly passed the TET,” the judgment stated.The Court allowed the appeal and directed the reinstatement of the appellants as Assistant Teachers in the same school with continuity of service and consequential benefits, including seniority. However, it clarified that they would not be entitled to back wages.Case : UMA KANT AND ANOTHER VERSUS STATE OF U.P. AND OTHERS Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 1078Click here to read the judgmentRelated - Supreme Court Mandates TET Qualification For Teachers In Non-Minority Schools; Allows Time For In-Service Teachers To Clear Test

Teachers Who Cleared TET Within Extended Time Under RTE Act Can't Be Terminated For Lacking It At Appointment: Supreme Court

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