Bombay HC allows teachers who cleared TET after 2019 to continue service; eligible for transfers, promotion

The Bombay High Court has ruled that teachers who cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) after the March 2019 deadline can continue in service and remain eligible for promotions, provided they were appointed after TET was made compulsory in Maharashtra in 2013.

The court observed that “the impugned orders refusing approval to their transfer from the unaided establishment to the aided establishment, on account of failing to acquire TET prior to March 31, 2019, shall stand quashed and set aside, in cases wherein the petitioners have acquired the TET/CTET qualification.”

The ruling came in response to writ petitions filed by two teachers, Sagar Dattatray Chorghe and Sangeeta Ramchandra Salunke, appointed in 2013, who had not qualified TET at the time of appointment but later cleared the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) in 2021. Their move from unaided posts to aided posts had earlier been blocked by the state authorities, citing the missed deadline.

In 2021, the High Court upheld this bar, holding that teachers who failed to qualify the test by March 31, 2019, were ineligible to claim benefits such as transfer, approval, or promotion. The latest decision, however, overturns that ruling.

Transfers from unaided to aided posts approved

The bench referred to the Supreme Court’s recent judgment on the TET mandate for teachers appointed prior to the enactment of the Right to Education Act. The apex court had ruled that while TET is a mandatory qualification, teachers who acquired it belatedly could not be completely deprived of service continuity or career progression.

Applying this principle, the High Court held that teachers appointed after 2013, when the state government introduced TET as a requirement, should not face termination or denial of promotions solely on account of clearing the test after the March 2019 cut-off.

With this, the court directed that the petitioners’ transfer from unaided to aided posts be approved, recognising their eligibility for service benefits after passing CTET in 2021.

The bench noted that “they would be entitled for approval to such transfer from the unaided to the aided establishment, and also the Shalarth-ID, provided there is no other legal impediment.”