HC clears decks for 9,455 JBT teachers’ appointment

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday dismissed a bunch of petitions on a controversy surrounding recruitment of 9,455 Junior Basic Teachers (JBTs) clearing way for their appointments.

Around 19 months ago, the high court had stayed the appointments following a petition alleging anomalies in awarding two marks to those candidates, who were Master of Arts (MA) degree holders.

During the resumed hearing on Thursday, the government told the high court bench of Justice Ritu Bahri that the recruitment was done as per the norms and some inadvertent mistakes happened while uploading the results on a website that had led to petitioners alleging anomalies in awarding marks to certain candidates.

On the other hand, those appearing for the petitioners had sought quashing of the recruitment and had alleged discrepancies in awarding marks to the candidates, whose names figured in the final list.

In March, the high court had got the record pertaining to preparation of result examined in the Central Forensic Laboratory (CFL), Chandigarh, which gave a clean chit to the recruitment process. Though the result was declared in 2014, the appointments were yet to be made as the high court had stayed the same following petitions alleging discrepancies.

The process for recruitment of 9,455 JBT teachers started in 2012 during the regime of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the result was declared by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) in September 2014.