Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh High Court principal bench in Jabalpur has directed the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) to consider percentage-based qualification criteria 50% and 45% as per National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) normsórather than the division mentioned in mark sheets.
The ruling was passed by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain.
The court also ordered that Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Divyang (disabled) candidates be granted a 5% relaxation in qualification criteria. It further directed that all candidates who were previously denied appointments due to division-based classification in their mark sheets be given appointments within two months by creating posts against future vacancies.
The High Court ordered the state government to amend the recruitment rule for high school teachers, ensuring compliance with NCTE’s prescribed qualification norms of 45% and 50% for postgraduate degrees. It also ruled that the state government lacks the authority to formulate rules deviating from the standards set under Rule 17 of the Right to Education Act, 2009.
Senior advocate Rameshwar Thakur, representing the petitioners, argued that the School Education Department made unconstitutional appointments in 2018 and 2023. “Candidates with 49.7% marks were denied appointment, while those with 45.1% marks were selected, violating fair recruitment norms,” he stated.
The case: 2018 eligibility test The case pertains to 2018 eligibility test, after which the School Education Department initiated recruitment in October 2021. Several candidates with marks between 45% and 50% were disqualified because their mark sheets stated ëthird division,í while others with marks ranging from 45.1% to 49.6% were appointed as their mark sheets indicated ësecond divisioní.
