Prepare fresh merit list of written test: HC

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Haryana government to prepare a fresh merit list for the recruitment of Post Graduate Teachers (PGT Sanskrit). The direction has been issued by the high court bench of justice Ritu Bahri asking the state to complete the exercise within two months.

The petitioners had challenged the result of written examination held in December 2018 for 626 posts advertised in 2015. The Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) had prepared a merit list on the basis of considering MA Sanskrit and BED candidates as eligible and excluding those with Shiksha Shatsri degree, which in the past was considered equivalent to a BED.

“Now the high court has held that those with Shiksha Shastri’s degree should be considered for the recruitment,” petitioners’ counsel Ranjit Kalra said.

The high court stated that the candidates had qualified HTET test. “Hence, if once they have been allowed to participate in the HTET, they cannot be now declared ineligible only on the ground that amendment made in the rules in the year 2017 has to be applied prospectively,” the court observed.

In 2017, the government had come out with a notification, stating that Shiksha Shatsri’s degree will be at par with BED for future recruitments and will not apply on the 2015 advertisement. During the hearing, it also came to light that in 2013 too the state government had recruited 700 teachers with Shiksha Shastri degree.