Gauhati High Court decides grace-mark issue of TET (Teachers Eligibility Test)

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana of the Gauhati Court decided on four sets of writ petitions regarding grace marks in TET (Teachers Eligibility Test) on Thursday.

The bench said, "…where the challenge has been made against the grant of grace marks and prayer has been made for giving them preference over persons who were given grace marks are all allowed. The award of grace to the extent of five marks in either Part-I or Part-II to candidates who had qualified in either of the two parts but failed in one is held to be illegal. The respondent authorities would do the needful to recall such grace marks within a period of two months from the service of a certified copy of this order.

"However, the award of grace marks of 1 (one) grace mark in respect of two questions (jumbled in four alphabetical series), viz., (i) Q. No. 74 in P-series; Q. No. 83 in Q-series; Q. No. 91 in R-series; and Q. No. 52 in S-series; and (ii) Q. No. 194 in P-series; Q. No. 198 in Q-series; Q. No. 177 in R-series; and Q. No. 184 in S-series, is held to be fully justified and saved because the resource University has admitted error in answer to those two questions.

"In respect of the second set of writ petitions, i.e. W.P.(C) 3882/2020, (i) the petitioners in the unreserved category, who had otherwise scored a minimum 60%, and (ii) petitioners in the reserved category, who had otherwise scored minimum 55% in the aggregate and may not have scored 60%/55% in any one of two parts, are entitled to be declared as TET qualified, which would be in consonance with Rule 10(2) of the 2018 Rules read with Clause-9 of the NCTE Guidelines. Resultantly, the respondent authorities are directed to do the exercise of revisiting the mark-sheets of all the candidates whose name/ roll number did not appear in the TET results declared on 04.03.2020, and if any candidates are found to have otherwise scored the minimum percentile marks of 60% and/or 55% (for unreserved/reserved category), all of such candidates be declared to be TET qualified in respect of examinations held on 19.01.2020, pursuant to educational advertisement dated 13.09.2019. The said exercise shall be carried out within the outer period of two months from the date of service of a certified copy of this order in the office of the Director of Secondary Education, Assam.

"Owing to the reasons as discussed hereinbefore, the petitioners in the third set and fourth set of writ petitions, i.e. W.P.(C) nos. 3435/2020, 3633/2020 and 3703/2020 are found not entitled to any relief and the said writ petitions fail and are dismissed.

"The needful in terms of this order shall be done within a period of two months from the date of service of a certified copy of this order on the Director of Secondary Education, Assam."

The bench further said, "… it is submitted that if the authorities are required to comply with the directions of this Court to do the exercise within a period of two months from the date of service of a certified copy of this order on the said authority, i.e. the Director of Secondary Education, Assam, the timelines as

mentioned in the communication dated 07.05.2022, is required to be correspondingly postponed.

"In respect of the point raised, Mr S.M.T. Chistie along with Mr B. Kaushik, learned standing counsel for the Secondary Education Department had obtained instructions and it is submitted that the timelines as provided in the communication dated 07.05.2022 is only indicative of verification process, and that the timelines were not for a final exercise of posting persons in the post of Postgraduate Teacher and Graduate Teacher. It was submitted that appointment letters have already been issued. It is also

submitted that the departmental authorities would like to go through the judgment and order of this Court passed today and to take an appropriate decision in this matter.

"Considered the situation arising out of the communication by the Director, Secondary Education, Assam vide memo dated 07.05.2022. In this regard, the Court is of the considered opinion that if the said authority, i.e. the Director of Secondary Education, Assam is proposing to comply with the judgment and order of this Court and re-visit the marks of candidates to ascertain whether they have scored 60%/55% in the aggregate, as indicated in this judgment, for which two months' time has been granted for doing the needful. Hence, the Court is of the considered opinion that the Director of Secondary Education, Assam may go ahead with the process of verification. However, no final appointment would be made without undertaking the exercise as indicated in the reliefs granted in this writ petition so as to prevent any uncertainty to prevail while carrying out such exercise. Therefore, even if any order of appointment has been issued, the same would be subject to the exercise to be done by the Director, Secondary Education, Assam."

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