Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 – s. 23 – Qualifications for appointment and terms and conditions of service of teachers – Minimum qualifications for a person to be eligible for the appointment as teachers prescribed by National Council for Teacher Education-NCTE – Thereafter, issuance of Service Rules, 2012 and were amended time to time – Department of Higher EducationMHRD issued a letter directing that all the teachers in Government Schools must possess minimum qualifications as mandated and a last chance was given to all teachers to acquire the same till March 31, 2019 – Subsequently, NCTE issued a recognition order, thereby conducting Diploma in Elementary Education-D.El.Ed programme through Open and Distance Learning-ODL mode by National Institute of Open Schooling-NIOS which reduced the duration of diploma from 2 years to
18 months – Thereafter, an office order by NIOS directing its Regional Directors to implement D.El.Ed. course for training of Untrained Inservice teachers – Subsequently, issuance of advertisement for posts of Assistant Teachers in Primary Schools – Minimum qualification for the post was 2 years Diploma in D.El.Ed.– In the meantime, order passed permitting the candidates who passed 18 months Diploma of NIOS to apply for the post of Assistant Teacher (primary) against the vacancies issued – However, the said order was recalled – Writ petitions challenging the same – High Court held that the 18 months Diploma in D.El.Ed. conducted through the ODL mode in elementary education by the NIOS is a valid Diploma for applying to the post and that, in respect of the in-service teachers, who have undergone the 18 months D.El.Ed. programme cannot discriminated by debarring them from their candidatures – Challenged to, by the candidates who are holding the 2 years diploma in elementary education:
Held: Government cannot amend or supersede statutory rules by administrative instructions, but if the rules are silent on any particular point, it can fill up the gaps and supplement the rules and issue instructions not inconsistent with the rules already framed – An authority cannot issue orders/office memorandum/executive instructions in contravention of the statutory rules – However, instructions can be issued only to supplement the statutory rules but not to supplant it – NCTE recognition order was issued so as to give effect to the directives of MHRD so as to provide a one-time window to the teachers who were already working and who in terms of the 2017 Amendment Act were required to acquire the minimum qualifications prior to 01.04.2019 else would have faced dismissal from service – Said order, cannot be held to be a direction to the State to act in contravention of its 2012 Service Rules and the advertisements issued on the basis of such Service Rules – Finding of the High Court that the 18 months D.El. Ed. Diploma conducted by NIOS is equal to 2 years Diploma is erroneous – There is no notification to that effect issued by NCTE in supersession of its notifications providing minimum 2 years Diploma as a minimum qualification for appointment of teachers – NCTE, as an expert body, has a right to prescribe the minimum qualifications, and by the notifications, NCTE has done so – Thus, the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court is quashed and set aside – Elementary Teachers Uttarakhand Government Elementary Education (Teacher) Service Rules, 2012. [Para 34-36, 41-43]
LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES
Sanjay Kumar Yadav and Others v. State of Bihar, CWJC No. 19842 of 2019; Sri Raju Nama and Others v. The State of Tripura and Others, WP(C)No. 87 of 2020 – disapproved.
Ram Sharan Maurya v. State of U.P., (2021) 5 SCC 401 – held inapplicable.
Employees’ State Insurance Corporation v. Union of India and Others (2022) 11 SCC 392/ 2022 INSC 77; State of Jammu and Kashmir and Others v. Ajay Dogra (2011) 14 SCC 243 : [2011] 6 SCR 57; Sureshkumar Lalitkumar Patel and Others v. State of Gujarat and Others 2023 SCC OnLine SC 167; S. Satyapal Reddy and Others v. Govt. of A.P. and Others (1994) 4 SCC 391 : [1994] 3 SCR 934; Devender Bhaskar and Others v. State of Haryana and Others 2021 SCC OnLine SC 1116 – referred to. OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED
ORDER AND APPEARANCES
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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