Can B.Ed candidates be appointed as UP Assistant Teachers? SC to hear challenge to UP Govt decision by BTC qualified candidates

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice UU Lalit will hear a plea by a group of Teachers Basic Training Certificate (BTC) holders who have challenged the inclusion of Bachelor of Education (B. Ed) qualified candidates in the Uttar Pradesh Assistant Teachers Exam (Arunesh Kumar v. State of Uttar Pradesh)..The exam, which was conducted in 2019 for filling up 69,000 posts, had permitted both BTC and B.ED candidates to appear even though petitioners claim B. ED candidates were only eligible to be trainee teachers as they have not completed a six months bridge course as approved by National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE)..A Bench comprising of Justices UU Lalit, MM Shantanagoudar and Vineet Saran on Thursday directed the petitioners to file the Writ Petition which is pending before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court as an Annexure to the instant plea before the Apex Court..The petitioners have challenged the June 28, 2018 notification for the UP Assistant Teachers Examination for 69,000 posts whereby B.ED candidates were allowed to appear for the exam..The case involves a challenge to a subsequent amendment by the UP govt in January 2019 giving retrospective effect to the inclusion of B. ED candidates in the exam as the NCTE did not consider them to be qualified for the assistant teacher post..The 23rd amendment passed in January 24, 2019, under Rule 8(2)(a) includes six months bridge course in a retrospective manner for B. ED candidates..The petitioners have challenged the order of the Division bench of Allahabad High Court in favour of B.ED candidates and its order to de-tag the plea challenging the validity of the retrospective amendment by the UP government, thereby giving its nod for the inclusion of B. ED candidates as assistant teachers..The petitioners have contended before the top Court that B.ED candidates are only qualified to be trainee teachers..However the Allahabad High Court had noted that Section 2 (u) of the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education (Teachers) Service (Twenty Second Amendment) Rules, 2018, read that :."Trainee teacher" means a candidate who has passed B.Ed/B.Ed. (Special Education)/ D.Ed. (Special Education) and has also passed the teacher eligibility test and has been selected for eventual appointment as assistant teacher in Junior Basic School after successful completion of six months special training programme in elementary education recognized by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).".Thus the Allahabad High Court had held that the reading suggested the inclusion of B.ED candidates as well for the post of assistant teachers..However, the BTC qualified petitioners have challenged the vires of these amendments. The matter has now been posted for July 13..Read the Plea: