GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has issued notice in a case regarding the nullifying of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualifications of candidates, who were then forced to sit for another test based on amended rules.
The petitioners had qualified in the TET for Post-Graduate Teachers in 2021, and their TET certificate was supposed to be valid for seven years, but the Assam government amended the Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised Schools) Service Rules, 2018, based on which the TET was held in 2021. The government amended the said Rules in 2023, which led to the nullification of the candidates’ TET certificates and forced them to sit for the test again. This led them to challenge the amended rules, with the prayer that they should be allowed to participate in the selection process directly by keeping their TET qualification intact.
The petitioners in writ case no. 6664/2023 are post-graduate degree holders in various disciplines. They qualified for the TET for Post-Graduate Teacher (PGT) in the year 2021, and it was provided that the certificate would be valid for seven years. The TET was held under the prevailing rules of that time, which were called the Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised Schools) Service Rules, 2018. Then, on September 26, 2023, the government of Assam amended the Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised Schools) Service Rules, 2018, which is now known as the Assam Secondary Education Provincialised Schools) Service (Amendment) Rules, 2023. The impugned rules have been amended by the substantive new rules by nullifying their earlier TET qualification, and therefore, the petitioners were compelled to sit in the test again on the basis of the amended rules, which have been enacted with a different concept, to the detriment of the TET-qualified candidates and to their grave prejudice, the petitioners pleaded.
On Monday (November 20), the two-judge bench of Chief Justice (Acting) Lanusungkum Jamir and Justice Kakheto Sema examined the counsel for the petitioners and the standing counsel for the respondents, the government of Assam’s Department of School Education and Director of Secondary Education, before directing the issue of notice to the petitioners and completing the issue of notice to the respondents. The bench also allowed the respondents to file a counter-affidavit and listed the matter for further hearing after four weeks.
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