DEVESH SHARMA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) A Division Bench judgment of Rajasthan High Court, dtd. 25/11/2021, is under challenge before this Court. Apart from the appeals, there are three Writ Petitions as well before this Court, on the same issue. All the same, while dealing with these cases, for facts, we would be referring to Civil Appeal @ SLP (C) No.20743 of 2021 Devesh Sharma versus Union of India, which arises out of the order dtd. 25/11/2021 passed by the High Court in D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 2109 of 2021.

(3.) What lies at the core of the dispute before this Court is the notification dtd. 28/6/2018, issued by the National Council for Teacher Education (hereafter 'NCTE'), made in exercise of its powers under Sec. 23(1) of the Right to Education Act, 2009 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'). This notification made B.Ed. degree holders eligible for appointment to the post of primary school teachers (classes I to V). All the same, in spite of the above notification, when the Board of Secondary Education, State of Rajasthan, issued an advertisement on 11/1/2021, for Rajasthan Teacher Eligibility Test (RTET Level-1), it excluded B.Ed. degree holders from the list of eligible candidates. This action of the Rajasthan Government was challenged before the High Court. The petitioner Shri Devesh Sharma has a B.Ed. degree, and as per the Notification dtd. 28/6/2018, he was eligible, like many other similar candidates. Consequently, he filed his petition before the Rajasthan High Court, inter alia, praying that the advertisement dtd. 11/1/2021 be quashed, as it was in violation of the notification dtd. 28/6/2018 issued by the NCTE.