Hold TET Before Selection: Gauhati High Court

Teachers’ appointment

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: A two-judge bench of the Gauhati High Court has ordered the Assam government to defer the process of selection of lower and upper primary teachers (advertisements published on March 11, 2018) and hold TET so as to enable D. El. Ed holder candidates to apply for the posts.

The situation of teacher appointment in the State seems quite intricate. TET for general candidates was first conducted in 2012 in the State and there has been no TET after that. The two-year D. El. Ed course was also started in 2012 and made it a prerequisite qualification for taking TET. However, by now over 7,000 D. El. Ed holder candidates came out after 2012, but they cannot apply for teachers’ posts as they have not got any chance to take TET.

Deprived of eligibility for applying teachers’ posts, the D. El. Ed-passed candidates moved the Gauhati High Court challenging the advertisement. The single-judge bench of the high court concluded that the requirement of passing TET cannot be relaxed and in that light, rejected the prayer. This made the appellants move a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Arup Kumar Goswami. In its order issued on March 28, 2019, the bench said that the appellants should be provided an opportunity to participate in the selection process, and as such it said that the authority should defer the selection process and hold TET before selecting candidates.

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