The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to prepare a fresh selection list for the appointment of 69,000 assistant teachers in the state. The court has set aside the selection lists issued in June 2020 and January 2022, which included 6,800 candidates.

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A bench comprising Justice AR Masoodi and Justice Brijraj Singh issued the order while disposing of 90 special appeals filed by Mahendra Pal and others, challenging a single-judge order of March 13 last year.

The latest order was uploaded on the court's website on Friday.

The court directed that while preparing the new selection list, any adverse impact on the currently working assistant teachers should be mitigated by allowing them to complete the ongoing academic session. This is intended to prevent disruption in the students' education, it said.

The bench also revised the earlier order and said reserved category candidates who qualify for the general category merit list should be migrated to that category.

In addition, the benefit of vertical reservation should also be extended to horizontal reservation categories, it said.
The court upheld the single-judge's decision to cancel the January 5, 2022, selection list of 6,800 candidates belonging to the reserved category.

The bench instructed the state government and other authorities concerned to complete the process of issuing a new selection list within three months.

The appellants had challenged the single-judge's decision, arguing that the reservation provided by state officials in the selection of 69,000 teachers was not accurate, and questioned the validity of the appointment of the 6,800 teachers.

The single-judge had ruled that candidates who benefited from reservations in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) should not be considered under the unreserved category, even if they scored the cut-off marks for the general category.

However, the current bench has now clarified that such candidates should be migrated to the general category if they meet the merit criteria.

The court's decision is expected to have a significant impact on the ongoing assistant teacher recruitment process in Uttar Pradesh.