The Allahabad High Court has directed the Secretary, Examination Regulatory Authority, to pass an order within a month as per the rules on the appointment of 69,000 selected shortlisted applicants for the recruitment of Assistant Teachers by giving weight-age of 25 marks to Shiksha Mitra.
A Single Bench of Justice Ashutosh Srivastava passed this order while hearing a petition filed by Archana Patel and Another.
The petitioners, who are reportedly Shiksha Mitra, have approached the Court for issuance of a writ of mandamus commanding the Respondent no 4, Secretary, Examination Regulatory Authority, Allenganj, U.P at Prayagraj, to grant weight-age of 25 marks of Shiksha Mitra to the petitioners after rectifying their application forms and appoint the petitioners on the post of Assistant Teachers in pursuance of 69000 vacancies published by the Secretary, Examination Regulatory Authority, Allenganj, U.P at Prayagraj.
Shresth Pratap Singh, counsel for the Respondent no 3 submitted that the controversy involved in the writ petition is squarely covered by the decision of the Lucknow Bench of the Court passed in a bunch of writ petition leading amongst them being Writ (A) No 31509 of 2021 decided on 31.05.2022, whereby the Court has declined to interfere with the impugned order under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, however, it was left open to the State Government to consider the appointment of the petitioners and other similarly situated if there are vacancies available on account of non-joining of any selected candidate which had been advertised for the selection in question, and if the petitioners, after being given weight-age of 2.5 marks per year of serving as per Rules/Policy applicable, would have scored more than the cut off mark and would thereby fall in the merit list.
It was also left open for the State Government to do so and the judgement rendered could not come in the way in this regard. It was also observed that the decision would not entail displacement of any candidate already appointed.
Counsel for the petitioners in reply to the aforesaid submitted that the State Government has already shortlisted the petitioners for their appointment and has invited attention of this Court to a communication dated 17.05.2021 issued by the Additional Chief Secretary, Government of U.P, addressed to the Director General of Education, U.P, whereby a direction has been issued for finalizing the recruitment process by offering appointment to the list appended to the aforesaid communication.
Counsel for the petitioners points out that the name of the petitioners appears at Serial Nos 16 & 69.
He further submitted that the petitioners had earlier approached the Court by Writ petition, which writ petition was permitted to be withdrawn with liberty to the petitioners to approach the State Government as per the Government Order issued from time to time.
He also submitted that even though the petitioners have been shortlisted for appointment, the same has not been accorded till date.
Since the State Government has already shortlisted the petitioners as per the statement made by the counsel for the petitioners and as is evident from the communication dated 17.05.2021 the Court deemed it appropriate to dispose of the petition by permitting the petitioners to file a fresh comprehensive representation before the Respondent No 4, Secretary, Examination Regulatory Authority, Allenganj, U.P at Prayagraj, within 10 days.
“In the eventuality of filing such a representation by the petitioner within time allowed, it is expected from the Respondent No 4 to pass appropriate orders thereon in light of the communication dated 17.05.2021 as also the Government Orders dated 04.12.2020, 18.01.2021 and 05.03.2021 issued from time to time within a period of one month from the date of service of a certified copy of the order”, the order reads.