The state government will challenge the Allahabad High court order annulling the appointment of 13,000 Urdu teacher trainees in an attempt to thwart the Opposition’s attempt to score a political point.
Announcing that a special review petition would be filed before a division bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday, Principal Secretary Shailesh Krishna said the government was committed to protecting the interests of the trainees. “If any procedural errors have occurred in the recruitment process adopted by the previous government these will be rectified. They will not be allowed to suffer,” he said.
On Friday, the Allahabad High Court had cancelled the selection of the Urdu teachers on the ground that the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) had not been intimated about the selections, which took place in 2005 and 2006.
Mr Justice Arun Tandon labelled the exercise “illegal and contrary to the statutory rules”, prompting immediate protests.
The ruling came on a petition filed by Sumbul Naqvi, a candidate for the 2006 examination whose candidature had been cancelled, for not fulfilling eligibility criterion.
At present, the 8,000 selected teachers who have been given Basic Teachers Certificates are undergoing training, getting a stipend of Rs 2,500 per month.
Post training they would be eligible to teach in schools where the number of Muslim students wishing to adopt Urdu as a medium of instruction is more than 15 per cent of the total students.
