The Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed an order of the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) dated August 6 for limiting an application of lifetime validity of Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test (HTET) to seven years and directed to assess the validity of HTET certification of the petitioners and other similarly situated candidates strictly in terms of notification issued by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
The Court said that since certain petitioners had appeared for the interview pursuant to interim orders passed by this Court, they would be at liberty to move a representation before the concerned authorities requesting them to consider their candidature for appointment.
The concerned authorities are also directed to consider them for appointment, if otherwise found eligible, and pass a speaking order in this regard within four weeks of receipt of such representations.
Mamta and others candidates moved the High Court contending that they had applied for appointment to the post of PGT (Political Science), in terms of advertisement issued by the HPSC on June 24, 2023, inviting applications for direct recruitment for 240 posts of Post Graduate Teacher (PGT) (Political Science).
An applicant said she had qualified the screening test as well as the subject knowledge test. However, her candidature had been provisionally rejected on the ground that her HTET certificate was valid for seven years, as provided in the government instructions dated October 7, 2020.
The counsel for the petitioner has argued that there is no rationale behind imposing such a condition i.e. limitation of validity of the HTET certificate to seven years once the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE ) has bestowed lifetime validity on the same vide notification dated June 9, 2021.
The counsel further submitted that the power to prescribe minimum qualifications and eligibility standards for school teachers resides with the NCTE, in terms of The National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
As such, since the NCTE, a statutory regulator created by a Parliamentary legislation, has prescribed a certain standard, the state government cannot deviate from it.
The counsel said that that a during the hearing vide notification, the validity had been extended to lifetime but the respondent- commission had unjustly passed the order dated August 6, 2024, whereby benefit of the extended validity was only granted prospectively i.e. with respect to the advertisements issued for recruitment of teachers after issuance of this order.
The counsel of respondent justified the decision and contended that since validity of her HTET certificate in case of the applicant stood expired on February 19, 2021, the petitioner was not eligible to participate in the selection process as on July 18, 2023.
After hearing of the argument, Justice Harpreet Singh Brar allowed petitions.
The High Court said that the respondents erred in giving prospective effect, w.e.f. August 6, 2024, to the lifetime validity of HTET certificate. Such decision of the respondent directly conflicted with the notification dated June 9, 2021, issued by the NCTE, which explicitly mandated retrospective application w.e.f. February 11, 2011, the date of enforcement of the TET Guidelines.
