Teachers without BEd not to be sacked, rules High Court

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 29

Issuing notice of motion for May 17 on a petition filed by postgraduate teachers required to obtain BEd degree by April, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered that their services will not be dispensed with till further orders.

The order by Justice Rajiv Narain Raina came on a petition filed against Haryana and other respondents by Santosh Kumari and another petitioner through counsel Mazlish Khan and Rahul Makkar.

Taking up the matter, Justice Raina also issued a notice on their prayer for ordering stay. The petition was the second to have been filed on the issue. Similar orders had been passed by the Bench on a petition filed by Sushma Rani through GS Bal.

The petitioners claimed that they were not in a position to do BEd course in view of the stand of the National Council for Vocational Training, which prohibited securing BEd degrees through the distance education mode.

“The suggestion that a capsule programme of instant spot BEd degree be formulated for teachers to study during vacations has not been put in motion. Therefore, for lack of BEd degree, the petitioners will be thrown out,” the Bench was told.

Seeking the quashing of a clause in their appointment order, the petitioners in the subsequent plea submitted that they were postgraduate teachers appointed in the Haryana School Education Department for biology, history and political science.

They were required to obtain BEd qualification initially by April 1, 2015. The deadline was extended to April 1 this year.

Describing the clause as illegal, the petitioners added that in case a candidate had not passed school teachers’ eligibility test or Haryana teachers’ eligibility test (HTET) and BEd, the candidate would have to qualify the HTET and BEd not later than April 1, 2015.

The appointment, otherwise, would stand terminated automatically without further notice. The requirement of passing BEd for the Mewat area was not prescribed, which was violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, the petitioners claimed.