CTET 82/150 marks reserved category candidate is not eligible for UP Govt. Teachers Selection / Recruitment Process

CTET 82/150 marks reserved category candidate is not eligible for UP Govt. Teachers Selection / Recruitment Process

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No relaxation to candidate, see judgement -
Therefore, no rounding off of the aggregate marks is permitted in view of the clear and unambiguous language of Rule 24 of the Rules under consideration.
Consequently no relief or reprieve can be accorded to the petitioner, and writ petition is accordingly, dismissed.

See Complete Judgement -
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD

Court No. - 30
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 37084 of 2013
Petitioner :- Minakshi Rai
Respondent :- State Of U.P.& 2 Ors.
Counsel for Petitioner :- Manoj Srivastava,J.S.Lodhi
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,C.K.Rai

Hon'ble V.K. Shukla,J.
Minakashi Rai, petitioner has approached this Court with request to direct the respondents to consider the candidature of the petitioner for the selection on the post of Assistant Teacher treating 54.66% marks obtained by her as 55% obtained by her in C.T.E.T as petitioner has received 82 marks out of 150 i.e 54.66% and as the Central Board of Secondary Education Delhi has already declared as qualified treating the aforesaid marks as 55% marks in C.T. E.T, and accordingly similar view be taken by the respondents.
Petitioner is OBC category candidate and she has completed her BTC course after completing graduation. Petitioner had applied for consideration of her candidature for C.T.E.T (Central Teachers Eligibility Test) and in the said examination petitioner has received 82 marks out of 150 marks which comes as 54.66% and the Central Board of Secondary Education Delhi, treating the same as 55% marks has proceeded to declare the petitioner as qualified and a note has also been appended therein that said qualification is applicable for recruitment of teachers in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan and Directorate of Education Government of NCT of Delhi.
Applications thereafter have been invited for making selection and appointment as Assistant Teacher in the institution run and managed by Basic Shiksha Parisad vide order dated 26.04.2013 and therein eligibility criteria has been prescribed as follows:
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Petitioner's submission is that her candidature has not at all been considered by the respondents on account of the fact that petitioner has not at all got to her credit 55% marks in the Teacher Eligibility Test as such petitioner's candidature cannot be considered same being not in consonance with the advertisement accordingly petitioner is before this Court.
Sri Jitendra Singh Lodhi, learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that once Central Teachers Eligibility Test has been passed by the petitioner and therein she has received 54.66% marks and same has been accepted to be 55% marks by rounding up the same and thereafter accordingly she has been declared as qualified then there is no occasion to treat the petitioner as ineligible in view of this rejection of petitioner's candidature is per se bad.
Countering the said submission learned Standing counsel as well as Sri C.K. Rai, Advocate on the other hand contended that selection and appointment is to be made in the institution run and managed by Basis Shiksha Parishad, Allahabad and in consoance with the provision as contained under U.P. Basic Education Tehacer Serivce Rules 1981, the eligibility criteria has been fixed and therein clear cut mention has been made that incumbent should have to his/her credit graduation degree and should have to his/her credit BTC certificate of training and should have successfully passed Teacher Eligibility Test conducted either by State Government or Central Government and clarification has also been given that only those candidate shall be considered as eligible who have to his/her credit minimum 60% marks for general category and for Scheduled caste / Scheduled Tribe category candidate, OBC category candidate/ Ex Armyman/ Physically Handicapped/Freedom Fighter category candidate should have to his/her credit minimum 55% marks.
It is true that petitioner has qualified Central Teachers Eligibility Test as therein out of 150 marks, she has obtained 82 marks i.e. 54.66% and Central Board of Secondary Education in its turn has proceeded to round up the marks of petitioner by treating the same as 55% and petitioner has been shown to have qualified with asterix mark and accordingly as per said asterix mark note has been appended clearly mentioning that said qualification is applicable for recruitment of teachers in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan and Directorate of Education Government of NCT of Delhi.
Petitioner submits that in the past once her 54.66% marks has been rounded off to 55% by the Central Board of Secondary New Delhi then Basic Shiksha Parishad should also treated the same as 55% marks.
Eligibility criteria as has been prescribed is governed by the statutory Rules known as U.P. Basic Education (Teachers) Service Rules 1981 as amended up till date and once in consonace with the aforesaid Rules qualification and eligibility criteria has been provided for and same clearly proceeds to mention that incumbent should have passed Teacher Eligibility Test conducted either by the State Government or by the Central Government and the candidates of General category should have obtained minimum 60% marks and the candidates of Scheduled caste/Scheduled Tribes, OBC/Ex Armyman/ Physically Handicapped/Freedom Fighter should have obtained minimum 55% marks.
This is also fully reflected in the present case, that as far as Central Teacher Eligibility Test is concerned, same is governed by Central Teacher Eligibility Test Rules, 2011 (C.T.E.T), and same is in reference to schools, affiliated with Central Board of Secondary Education. Said Rules in itself provides for applicablity of the same, and also categorically proceeds to mention, that schools owned and managed by the State Government/ Local Bodies and aided shcools shall consider the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) conducted by the State Government. However a State Government can also consider CTET if it decides not to conduct State TET.
Here the State Govenremnt does condut its own State TET, but in its wisdom has chosen to give opportunity to incumbents who have passed TET conducted by Central Government, but such opportunity has been restricted qua those category of candidates who have recevied 55% minimum marks in CTET. Central Board of Secondary Education, for institutions affiliated to it can round up 54.66% marks to 55% marks, but when it comes to claimig appointment in institution, run and managed by Basic Shiksha Parishad, said rounding of would be of no consequence and candidate will have to have to his credit minimum 55% in Teachers Eligibility Test.
Accepted position is that petitioner has not obtained minimum 55% marks and has obtained 54.66% marks and petitioner submits that theory of rounding up to be passed and she should be treated as eligible.
Question is can 54.66% marks in aggregate be treated minimum 55% in aggregate ? Admittedly 54.66% marks in aggregate are less than 55% marks in aggregate. In view of this by no stretch of imagination it can be accepted that petitioner has to her credit the eligibility criteria so prescribed. Said issue has already been negated by this Court, as per the judgement in the case of Ranjana Kushwaha Vs. state of U.P. 2009 (2) E&MC 94, wherein also requirement was minimum 45% and candidate had received 44.8% , therein candidate have been held to be ineligible, and in the said judgement, the two earlier judgements have been referred to wherein 49.67 % and 49.66% have not been accepted as equivalent to 50%, namely the case of Vani Pali Tripathi Vs. Director, 2003(1) UPLBEC 427; Pranjal Bishnoi Vs. U.P. Technical University 2003 (3) ESC 1470. In such a situation 54.66% specilly marks cannot be treated as equivalent to 55% when emphasis is given in the eligibility criteria, to the minimum marks to be there, then said minimum makes has to be obtained by concerned candidate and there can not be any scope of compromise with the same by invoking principal of rounding up. State of U.P. has already fixed the minimum marks to be obtained by the candidate i.e. minimum 60% by the General candidates and candidates of Scheduled caste/Scheduled Tribes, OBC/Ex Armyman/ Physically Handicapped/Freedom Fighter should have obtained minimum 55% marks. Said percentage of marks as fixed on the minimum side cannot be further lowered.
Apex Court in the case of Orissa Public Service Commission vs Rupashree Chowdhary & Anr (CIVIL APPEAL NO. 6201 OF 2011) decided on 02.08.2011 reported in 2011 (8) SCC 108 has taken view that in order to qualify in the written examination a candidate has to obtain a minimum of 33% marks in each of the papers and not less than 45% of marks in the aggregate in all the written papers in the Main examination. When emphasis is given in the Rules itself to the minimum marks to be obtained making it clear that at least the said minimum marks have to be obtained by the concerned candidate there cannot be a question of relaxation or rounding off. Relevant extract of the aforesaid judgement is being extracted below:
"9. A bare reading of the aforesaid rules would make it crystal clear that in order to qualify in the written examination a candidate has to obtain a minimum of 33% marks in each of the papers and not less than 45% of marks in the aggregate in all the written papers in the Main examination. When emphasis is given in the Rules itself to the minimum marks to be obtained making it clear that at least the said minimum marks have to be obtained by the concerned candidate there cannot be a question of relaxation or rounding off.
10.There is no power provided in the statute/Rules permitting any such rounding off or giving grace marks so as to bring up a candidate to the minimum requirement. In our considered opinion, no such rounding off or relaxation was permissible. The Rules are statutory in nature and no dilution or amendment to such Rules is permissible or possible by adding some words to the said statutory rules for giving the benefit of rounding off or relaxation.
11. We may also draw support in this connection from a decision of this Court in District Collector & Chairman, Vizianagaram Social Welfare Residential School Society, Vizianagaram and Another. v. M. Tripura Sundari Devi reported in (1990) 3 SCC 655. In the said judgment this Court has laid down that when an advertisement mentions a particular qualification and an appointment is made in disregard of the same then it is not a matter only between the appointing authority and the appointee concerned. The aggrieved are all those who had similar or even better qualifications than the appointee or appointees but who had not applied for the post because they did not possess the qualifications mentioned in the advertisement.
12.The entire record of the main written examination was also produced before us which indicates that there are also candidates who have got more than the respondent in the aggregate but has not been able to get 33% marks in each paper and have missed it only by a whisker. In case, the contention of the counsel appearing for the respondent is accepted then those candidates who could not get 33% marks in each paper in the Main written examination could and should have also been called for viva-voce examination, which would amount to a very strange and complicated situation and also would lead to the violation of the sanctity of statutory provision.
13.When the words of a statute are clear, plain or unambiguous, i.e., they are reasonably susceptible to only one meaning, the courts are bound to give effect to that meaning irrespective of consequences, for the Act speaks for itself. There is no ambiguity in the language of Rule 24 leading to two conclusions and allowing an interpretation in favour of the respondent which would be different to what was intended by the Statute. Therefore, no rounding off of the aggregate marks is permitted in view of the clear and unambiguous language of Rule 24 of the Rules under consideration.
Consequently no relief or reprieve can be accorded to the petitioner, and writ petition is accordingly, dismissed.
Order Date :- 11.7.2013
Dhruv


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