In order to provide significant relief to the Yogi Adityanath government, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court confirmed on Wednesday, May 6, that the state government raised the cutoff for general candidates to 65% and the cutoff for reserved category to 60%, thus completing selection process of 69,000 assistant teachers in the primary schools of Uttar Pradesh within three months.
A division bench of justices Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal and Karunesh Singh Pawar announced the judgement in a chamber on the special appeals.
The court has revoked the single judge order that allows the state’s appeal. Appellants challenged the single judge’s order, which cancelled the government’s order and through this, the passing marks for the exam for recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers had been raised to 65 and 60 from 45 and 40 respectively.
The government order, dated January 7, 2019, had fixed 65% qualifying marks for candidates belonging to the general candidates (from 45%) and 60% for the reserved candidates (from 40%).
The order was issued a day after the recruitment examination on January 6 had prompted the job seekers to move the court.
A single judge order dated March 29, 2019 reduced the burden on thousands of shiksha mitras, directed the secretary of examination regulatory authority to announce the results within three months based on the old criteria of 45% and 40% pass scores.
During the hearing, the petitioner ’s counsel believed that the government ’s decision was arbitrary. The state government has always insisted on increasing the pass rate to ensure that better teachers are selected.
The UP government issued a notification for recruitment of 69,000 new assistant teachers in the state on December 5, 2018. After more than six months of detailed hearings, the court retained the verdict on March 3.
