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State of U.P. and Ors. v. Shiv Kumar Pathak and Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2017 INSC 666Decided 25 Jul 2017
Civil Appeal Nos. 4347-4375 of 2014
Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel · Justice Uday Umesh Lalit

Background

Following the National Council for Teacher Education's (NCTE) 2011 guidelines requiring weightage to Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) marks in recruiting primary-school teachers, Uttar Pradesh initially amended its rules to match, then reversed course in 2012 (after a cash-for-TET-marks scandal came to light) and reverted to an older "quality points" based selection criterion instead of TET-weightage. Aspiring teachers challenged this reversal, and the Allahabad High Court struck down the State's 2012 amendment as inconsistent with the binding NCTE guidelines, directing the State to proceed with the original 2011 advertisement. The State and others appealed to the Supreme Court in this large batch of connected appeals, writ petitions, and contempt petitions.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that while NCTE's minimum qualifications (including the TET itself) are binding on States, NCTE's own stated position was that giving "weightage" to TET marks (as opposed to merely requiring a pass) was only a directory guideline, not mandatory, so the High Court was wrong to strike down the State's 2012 rule change on that specific ground. However, because tens of thousands of teachers (over 66,000) had already been appointed in the interim under the Supreme Court's own earlier interim orders based on minimum TET marks, the Court declined to disturb those appointments, and simply permitted the State to fill any remaining vacancies through a fresh advertisement under its own rules going forward.

Lesson Learnt

Even where a regulator's technical qualification requirement (like a TET pass) is legally binding, auxiliary guidance on how to weigh that qualification in selection can be merely advisory, and once large numbers of appointments have been made in good faith under interim court orders, courts are reluctant to unwind them even if the underlying legal question is later resolved differently.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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