High Court of Jharkhand: In a recent judgment, a Single Judge Bench of S. Chandrashekhar, J., decided upon the controversy concerning qualification for appointment of Graduate Trained Teachers.
Following the issuance of the advertisement for the appointment on the post of Graduate Trained Teacher in Government Secondary Schools, which laid down minimum educational qualifications for the appointment, aggrieved Arts and Science Graduates filed a petition in the Court for the revision of the qualifications. The Arts Graduates challenged the advertisement, contending that clubbing of History and Political Science is not only against general practice, but also breaches their rights under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. Given that no such combination of subjects for Economics and Geography, they alleged that it is discriminatory, illegal, arbitrary and void to prescribe different qualifications for subjects in the same group.
The Science Graduates claim, on the other hand, was not held valid given that the classification of posts made on the basis of subject combination in both Mathematics and Biology is not arbitrary or discriminatory.
In the light of existing facts, the Court held that the combination of subjects as qualification for appointment, given that it does not ultra vires of Articles 14 and 16 of Constitution of India. The advertisement was quashed due to “serious inconsistencies, mistakes and drafting errors” and all those who have already applied for appointment and those who could not due to the prescribed qualification under the advertisement were declared eligible for making applications. [Hari Sharma v. State of Jharkhand, 2017 SCC OnLine Jhar 1226; order dated 11-05-2017]
