Police use water cannon on protesting teachers at Chandigarh-Panchkula border

Panchkula, August 28

The police had to use a water cannon to stop protesting eligible JBT teachers from entering the Chandigarh territory to lay siege to the residence of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today.

The candidates seeking appointment in the low merit and waiting list of 9,455 JBT recruitment were chased away by the police during a mild lathicharge. The protesters were demanding that the government should implement the final decision of the double Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

State president of Eligible Teachers Association of Haryana Prem Ahlawat said of 9,870 JBT posts in Haryana, the result of original/first list of 9,455 candidates was released in 2014 and in May 2017, appointment letters were given to those candidates who were eligible till the last date of advertisement of December 8, 2012. He said JBT qualified teachers, who had cleared the eligibility test HTET 2013 after the cut-off date of December 8, 2012, were also included in the recruitment, due to which the teachers who passed the original list (HTET 2011) were dismissed.

The teachers featuring on the original list (having all qualifications till the cut-off date) fought the case in the High Court for five years. On May 16, 2022, all cases related to this recruitment were decided by the Double Bench of Justice GS Sandhwalia and Justice Vikas Suri on July 20, 2022. The Bench directed the state government to consider only the candidates on the original list/first list (having all qualifications till the cut-off date) as eligible.

The teachers said 38 days had elapsed since the High Court order, yet it was not implemented.