Allahabad High Court stays single-bench order of June 3 on appointment of 69,000 assistant basic teachers in UP

Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday stayed the June 3 single bench order halting the selection process of 69,000 assistant basic teachers in Uttar Pradesh.

A division bench comprising justices P K Jaiswal and D K Singh while passing the order said the state government was free to continue with the selection process, keeping in mind the June 9 order of the Supreme Court by which about 37,000 posts have been kept for Siksha Mitras.

On rest of the posts, the state government can start counselling which had stopped on June 3 after the single bench's order, it said.

The UP Examination Regulatory Authority, conducting the selection of assistant basic teachers, had earlier filed three appeals in the court, challenging the June 3 interim stay on the selection, imposed by a bench of Justice Alok Mathur on a bunch of pleas by 31 unsuccessful aspirants.

In its pleas, the UPERA had argued that the interim stay by the single-judge bench was legally untenable as it was imposed merely on pleas of 31 aspirants without giving the successful candidates any chance to have their say in the hearing.

The unsuccessful candidates had moved the single bench seeking direction to the UPERA to award general marks to them for several questions that the court had later said were confusing, so that they may get past the cut-off marks.

Jusice Alok Mathur had stayed the selection process, holding that there were prima facie "serious confusion, dilemma and falsity in certain questions and answers" for the test of assistant basic teachers recruitment and had referred the matter to the University Grant Commission.

On behalf of the UPERA, state's Advocate General Raghvendra Singh, however, argued that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the pleas and set aside the findings of an expert body like UPERA.

He had also pleaded for a lifting of the stay on the selection process, saying the counselling for recruitment was to begin on June 3.