CTET 2019: Supreme Court not in favour of 10% EWS quota

The Supreme Court disagreed on Monday that 10% quota for the economically weaker section (EWS) should be there in Central Teachers Eligibility Test (CTET)-2019.

A vacation bench led by Justice Indira Banerjee observed there cannot be any reservation for “qualifying examinations.” “For qualifying examinations there cannot be any reservations. This is wholly misconceived. This (CTET) is merely a qualifying examination. The issue of reservation will come up only at the time of admission.” However, the court agreed to hear the petitioners – who claim to be belonging to the EWS – on May 16.

When petitioner’s counsel referred to the notification for CTET exam, to be held on July 7, the bench said: “The notification for the examination does not give any reservation to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe either.”

“Recently the CBSE has published advertisement dated January 23, 2019 for conducting Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET), 2019 in which this benefit has not been given to the economically weaker section of the society and therefore the present writ petition is being filed to make sure that people covered under economically weaker section of the society are given similar benefit like other reserved category (SC, ST and OBC) starting with CTET-2019 advertisement,” read the petition.

According to the petitioners, who are also candidates for CTET, the notification is in violation of their rights conferred upon them under the the Constitution that was amended to allow 10% reservation for the EWS in the general category. This quota is over and above the reservation benefits extended to other reserved categories such as scheduled caste and scheduled tribe, other backward class and physically handicapped.

First Published: May 13, 2019 19:40 IST