PATNA: The Patna high court on Monday scrapped the appointment of 451 assistant professors in government teachers training colleges across the state last year for violation of rules and regulations.
The bench of Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay passed the order while hearing a batch of writ petitions filed by at least 18 candidates, including Ravi Kumar and Amit Shanker. The petitioners had moved the court after having been barred by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on the direction of education department, from taking part in the selection process.
The court also rapped the state government and the BPSC for their slack behaviour in the entire matter. It also directed BPSC to start fresh recruitment process. Counsels Sunil Kumar Singh and Jogendra Kumar appeared for the petitioners in the case.
The petitioners were holding MEd degree in special education from recognized universities and were also NET qualified. They had applied for the post of lecturers/assistant professors against advertisement for the vacancies of altogether 478 posts published by the BPSC in 2016. An MEd degree was the initial basic qualification.
However, even after being found eligible in provisional selection list, education department’s principal secretary issued a letter on June 8, 2018 that MEd in special education, special visual impairment or mental retardation would not be on par with MEd degree.
Counsel Singh said the education department had sought opinion from a Patna University expert, who said they were not eligible for the selection process against the posts. “Based on the opinion, the then secretary issued a letter barring these candidates from taking part in the selection process,” he said.
Singh said they had appeared in the written examination on the interim order of the high court and later also in interview. “But, at the end, they were excluded from the final merit list of 451 candidates published last year,” he said.