High School Teacher Recruitment: HC Contempt Notice To PS School Education, DPI Commissioner

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The High Court on Wednesday issued a notice of contempt to the Principal Secretary, School Education, and the Commissioner of the Directorate of Public Instructions for not complying with its directions to change a rule for the recruitment of high school teachers. 

The High Court had declared the rule related to the recruitment of high school teachers by the government in 2018 as unconstitutional with retrospective effect. It had clearly instructed the Madhya Pradesh government to give 5% relaxation in the prescribed qualification to OBC/SC/ST and Divyangs, and to establish 50% as the qualifying percentage instead of ‘second class’.

Petitioners alleged that the DPI deprived them of appointment as high school teachers in 2018 and 2023, which arose out of inequality in the scaling of degrees in the universities of the state, different institutions marking different marks as ‘second’ and ‘third class’. 

Explaining, senior advocate Rameshwar Singh Thakur, who appeared for the petitioners, said, “The rules related to the recruitment of teachers were made by the Madhya Pradesh government on July 30, 2018. In Rule 8 and Schedule 3 of the said recruitment rules, the qualification for a high school teacher was a Master's in second division in the relevant subject and a B.Ed. degree. Whereas, as per the NCTE rules, 50% marks in post-graduation in relevant subjects and a B.Ed. are required for high school teachers.” 

He added, “The state government organised an eligibility test for the recruitment of high school teachers in 2018, and the selection process started from October 2021. In document verification, the candidates who had a second division written in their mark sheet were selected even though they secured 45% marks.

“On the other hand, the candidates who had third division written in their mark sheet, but their marks were between 45% and 49.9% were out of the process. Many candidates filed petitions in the High Court and challenged the constitutionality of the rules: Schedule 3 of Recruitment Rule 8 is against the NCTE rules because the scaling is different in different universities of the state and the country, some universities accept 45% to 59.9% as second class and some universities accept 45% to 50% as third class.”