TET conducted in 2012 is legal, declares HC

The Calcutta High Court on Friday declared Teachers Eligibility Tests (TET), which was conducted by the state government in 2012 for recruiting teachers at primary schools, as legal.

Rejecting the appeal moved by some applicants to declare the examination as illegal, single bench justice Debangshu Basak of the Calcutta High Court on Friday said the examination was conducted following the guidelines prescribed by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and so the applicants do not have any right to file a case in the matter. 

The verdict of the Calcutta High Court comes as a breather to more than 18,000 candidates who are now teaching at various schools after clearing the TET in 2012. Some of the candidates had moved the court in 2013 as they claimed that the examination was conducted by the state government without adhering the guidelines set by the NCTE. 

But the Calcutta High Court after going through the details has made the observation that the examination was conducted as per the norms laid down by the NCTE and hence the examination was not illegal. The decision comes as a moral victory of the state government who had time and again claimed that there was nothing illegal in the procedure of examination and it had followed the NCTS guidelines while conducting the TET in 2012. 

The candidates, who were currently teaching at various primary schools after clearing the TET in 2012 the validity of which was in question, were anxiously waiting for the verdict. They breathe a sigh of relief after Justice Basak delivered his verdict announcing it as legal.

It may be mentioned that the division Bench of chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice Joymalya Bagchi in December gave a stay order in December. The applicants moved the court with a demand for a separate merit list for the successful candidates who were specially trained. 

The applicants’ appeal was that the untrained candidates could not be appointed as primary teachers as per the guidelines of NCTE. 

But the state government was appointing the untrained candidates as the government claimed that NCTE in 2009 had relaxed the rule for the government for 5 years. As a result, the state government could appoint untrained candidates till March 31, 2015. But the state government had appealed for the further extension of the relaxation. 

The Centre has approved the state’s demand till April this year. 

The state government had decided to give a chance to the untrained candidates whose names were featured in the merit list of the examination which was held in October last year. 

But the guardians of the candidates, who were trained, filed a case in Calcutta High Court. They demanded that trained candidates must be given priority.