SANDEEP DASS Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment shall dispose of above noted seven Civil Writ Petitions as common question of law and facts are involved in these petitions. However, for the present judgment, the facts have been extracted from Civil Writ Petition No.7829 of 2014.

(2.) The relief claimed in the present writ petition is for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondent No.2 to declare the petitioner as eligible/qualified in the Punjab State Teachers Eligibility Test (PSTET-I) held on 28.12.2013 in view of the decision dated 10.1.2014 (Annexure P/4) taken by respondent no.3-National Council for Teachers Education (for brevity "the NCTE"). Further prayer has been made to direct the respondent no.4 to allow the petitioner to apply for the recruitment of ETT teacher in pursuance of the advertisement dated 22.2.2014 (Annexure P/6) in view of the fact that he secured 82 marks in the PSTET-I held in December, 2013.

(3.) The pleaded case of the petitioner is that as per the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 (hereinafter referred to as "2009 Act"), the NCTE vide notification dated 23.8.2010 had laid down the minimum qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher and one of the essential qualification for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in any of the schools referred to in clause (n) of Section 2 of the 2009 Act was that he should pass the Teacher Eligibility Test which was to be conducted by the appropriate Government as per guidelines framed by the NCTE.