Uttar Pradesh: Why Allahabad HC cancelled appointments of 69,000 teachers, ordered fresh list

NEW DELHI : The Uttar Pradesh government, led by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, on Sunday, ordered the basic education department to create a new list of candidates for filling 69,000 assistant teaching posts following an Allahabad High Court order that struck down the earlier appointments for not following reservation rules.

Last week, the Allahabad High Court, while pronouncing judgment on a series of petitions filed in 2019, quashed the appointment of 67,867 teaching posts based on the Assistant Teachers Recruitment Examination (ATRE) held in 2019. The petitioners had argued that the government did not follow the reservation rules and did not admit meritorious reserved category students under the general category and moved them to the Other Backward Castes (OBC) quota to make way for the selection of “some ineligible” candidates.

The Allahabad High Court judgment observed that the Yogi Adityanath government followed an “unexplained anomaly” by employing two different selection processes for ATRE 2018 and ATRE 2019 exams. The court also asked the government to draw up a new list in line with the reservation rules.

ATRE 2019 exams, cut-offs, reservation, court cases

In January 2019, the Uttar Pradesh government had conducted an open qualifying examination to fill 69,000 vacant teaching positions in the education department. No cut-off mark was announced prior to the exam that had 4.1 lakh candidates writing it.

The government had also not disclosed how many seats were to be reserved for each category of candidates. The Uttar Pradesh government reserves 27% seats for OBCs, 15% for Scheduled Castes (SCs), 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 10% for economically weaker sections(EWS).

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Immediately after the exams, the Uttar Pradesh government announced a cut-off of 65% for the general and 60% for the reserved categories.

A section of candidates approached the High Court against these cut-offs which were initially revised to 45% and 40%, respectively. However, a divisional bench in May 2019 restored it to the earlier government criteria. Following this, the basic education department started recruiting teachers based on the June 2020 results, which were published without releasing the category-wise marks important for filling reserved posts.

69,000 Teacher Vacancy: Recruitment in two stages

The recruitment was also carried out in two stages. Appointment letters for 31,277 candidates were given in October 2020 and for 36,590 candidates in November 2020. Moreover, 1,133 Scheduled Tribe (ST) teaching posts were declared vacant as candidates were found to be ‘not suitable’.

Several candidates who took the exam protested against these appointments citing non-release of category-wise marks. They also said that the number of candidates for unreserved seats was well over 50% and that the reservation criteria were not met.

Moving the court, representatives of the petitioners alleged that the minimum qualifying marks were raised due to an “ulterior motive” of the government of “allowing selection of some ineligible candidates”. They also argued that the state government applied two different qualification rules for ATRE 2018 and ATRE 2019.

‘69,000 shikshak bharti court case’: What UP govt told court

The state’s counsel in what has come to be known as the “69,000 shikshak bharti court case”, however, argued that the state has an “absolute discretion” in fixing the minimum marks. They also argued that it is a “policy decision” that is “neither illegal or arbitrary” and is beyond judicial review.

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“There is no illegality or infirmity in the Government Order dated 7.1.2019 as the same is neither arbitrary nor illegal and it is only a policy decision, the same is beyond the scope of judicial review and may not be interfered with. Further, the decision to increase the cut off mark has been taken after due deliberations by the experts and in furtherance with the object of improving the merit and standard of education,” argued Prashant Chandra, representing the state government.

UP Assistant Teacher Jobs: Allahabad HC orders new list

On August 13, 2024, the Allahabad High Court, quashing the earlier recruitment process, said that the appointments were made based on an “unreasonable classification” which involved increasing minimum qualifying marks compared to that of ATRE 2018 exams. It also said that neither the Uttar Pradesh government nor the basic education department “carried out proper exercise before conducting selection in question”. The court also noted that “converting an OBC reservation seat to general category is not permissible”.

The court ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to come out with a new list in the “same manner” and similar qualification marks as in the ATRE 2018 exam.

UP Teacher Recruitment: ‘Reservation scam’

Hailing the High Court verdict, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav said that the earlier recruitments were based on “fraud and corruption”, and Chandra Shekhar Azad of Bhim Army called it a “reservation scam”.

Both chief minister Yogi Adityanath and basic education minister Sandeep Singh, posting on X (formerly Twitter), welcomed the High Court decision.

“Instructions have been given to the department to take action in the light of the observations.... The Uttar Pradesh government is of the clear opinion that the reserved category candidates must avail the benefit of the reservation facility provided by the Constitution and no injustice should be done to any candidate,” said Yogi Adityanath on X.

Azad, posting on X, alleged that the Yogi Adityanath government is in “damage control” after “turning a blind eye” to the issue because it involved the future of Dalits. Several candidates have also initiated protests calling for harsher punishments for the “officials who committed the scam”.