Supreme court consoled more than 1500 teachers’ appointments to secondary schools which was hindered by legal interference.
In 2016, the appointment process which was advertised got into trouble after many petitions were filed against the district-based domicile quota in vacancies in 13 scheduled districts. The High Court held the appointment order and eventually a three-member High Court ordered to nullify the government advertisement in scheduled areas, stating that it will expropriate the candidates of other districts on September 13 last year. However, the bench highlights that “the selection process was never stayed by the court in the non-scheduled districts.”
On February 8, in spite of the order, the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, in its order stated that after being well-considered by Advocate General’s office, the Jharkhand government ordained to stop the appointment process.
On hearing a Special Leave Petition raising questions of the HC order, the Supreme Court declared, “there was no reservation therein for locals/domicile of non-scheduled districts” and also “the subject matter…. relates to appointments from the scheduled districts of Jharkhand.” A bench of Justices Navin Sinha and R Subhash Reddy recorded this in order on July 9.
Furthermore, the candidate appealed to HC and later to the Supreme Court with 350 of them pooling funds from their savings to fight for the case that they have to spend Rs 10 lakh.
Kumar Abhijeet, a petitioner who applied for the history teacher post, addressed, “Despite the HC clearly stating their order does not affect the appointment process in non-scheduled districts, the Jharkhand Government arbitrarily stopped the remaining appointments… we have been a victim of the state’s high-handedness.”Moreover, Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan did not respond to calls.
