TAMIL NADU PATTATHARI ASIRIYARGAL VELAIVAIPPU SANGAM REP BY ITS SECRETARY NA MURUGADASS Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU, REP BY ITS SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition is filed by an Association known as Tamil Nadu Pattathari Asiriyargal Velaivaippu Sangam (Tamil Nadu Graduate Teachers Employment Opportunity Association) represented by its Secretary. In this writ petition, the Association has challenged on behalf of some of its members the order passed by the State Government in G.O.Ms.No.181, School Education Department, dated 15.11.2011 so far as it has prescribed Teacher Eligibility Test even for persons who have completed certificate verification conducted by the Teachers Recruitment Board for appointment to the post of Graduate Assistants and for consequential direction to respondents 1 and 2 to appoint the members of the petitioner association as Graduate Assistants on the basis of the seniority in the Statewide list kept by the employment exchange as was done in the case of Secondary Grade Teachers.

(2.) IT is the case of the petitioner that by G.O.Ms.No.181, the State Government has prescribed Teacher Eligibility Test for all recruitments to the post of teachers in accordance with the directions contained under Section 23(1) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (for short RTE Act). Under the said Act, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has been appointed as the Academic Authority by the Government of India. The Academic Authority has indicated that all the States in which teachers are recruited in future for the elementary segment should have passed the Teacher Eligibility Test to be conducted by the appropriate Government in accordance with the guidelines framed by the NCTE for this purpose. Therefore, the State Government on the basis of the said direction had specified that teachers who do not have minimum qualification, were given five years time to acquire the minimum qualification. For all recruitments in respect of even teachers working in unaided private schools are also required to pass the said test within five years. So far this State was concerned, persons for whom minimum qualification prescribed was Diploma in Teacher Education as well as Graduate Assistants and who are teaching classes 6 to 8 and have acquired B.Ed. qualification, should pass Teacher Eligibility Test. In the case of the secondary grade teachers, the earlier recruitment was done on the basis of the District level employment registration and seniority.

(3.) THE contention raised by the petitioner was that some of their members whose names were set out in page 50 of the typed set (27 members) have already gone through the selection process in the earlier recruitment process and some of them have already been appointed. THErefore, the persons who went through earlier selection process cannot be subjected to the present order of the State Government. THErefore, to that extent, the State Government should be prohibited from insisting for those 27 persons from writing any examination for future recruitment. Since the only question of certificate verification alone was the earlier criteria and they were having gone through the same, they should be given appointment orders. In essence, they wanted to contend that at the time of issuance of appointment orders prescribing new qualification was illegal. THEy cannot introduce a new testing process. Secondly, in respect of secondary grade teachers, there is no such insistence and that the past practice of recruitment through employment exchange sponsorship based upon seniority cannot be dislodged.