The High Court of Allahabad has stayed the interim order passed by a single-Judge Bench of the High Court, that had stayed the process of recruitment of 69,000 Assistant Basic Teachers in Uttar Pradesh, while giving the state Government the liberty to continue with the selection process for 37,000 posts that were kept vacant for Siksha Mitras, in terms of the Supreme Court order.
The division Bench of Justice Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal & Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh noted that the objection before the single bench regarding nonjoinder of proper parties was based on the law laid down before Supreme Court in the cases of Ranjan Kumar and others v. State of Bihar and Rashmi Mishra v. M. P. P Public Service Commission and others and therefore needs re-consideration.
According to the petitioner, the Single Judge in stating that certain answers were incorrect and some of the questions had more than two alternative answers had committed an error and took upon himself the job of a subject expert.
According to the authority the law as laid down in Ranvijay Singh v. State of UP, states that in situations where there is a doubt regarding the correctness of the question or the answers, the benefit of doubt will be in favour of the authority and not the candidate.
The Division Bench noted that the the single Bench had failed to take the Ranvijay Singh order in its true perspective, and even while noting that the benefit should go to the Examining authority, had still issued an order of stay.
The Division Bench therefore stayed order of the Single Bench of the High Court, subject to the Supreme Court’s order dated June 9th.
A single-Judge bench of Justice Alok Mathur on June 3, had ordered a stay all proceedings for selection of assistant basic teachers. The Court considering a that an error has taken place in evaluation of the question paper, had also directed the matter to be referred to the UGC.
According to the Bench, many candidates will suffer owing to the serious confusion in the final answer key.
The UP Examination Regulatory Authority then moved to the High Court with an appeal against the order of the Single Bench on the ground of not having received an opportunity to present its case.
Read the order here;
SPLAL-154-2020-India Legal Bureau