New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS The Delhi High Court Friday directed the city government hold a meeting with MCD officials and take a policy decision with respect to age relaxation norms on recruitment of special educator in nearly 1,700 schools run by the municipal body.
A division bench of Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Vipin Sanghi asked the chief secretary to hold the meeting within a week and take a decision on age relaxation to candidates for recruitment in 1,692 posts of special educator (primary) in MCD schools.
The bench also observed that the problem of inadequate number of special educators would not be solved until age relaxation is granted.
The court was hearing a plea of eight special educators, filed by advocate Ashok Agarwal, seeking an one-time age relaxation for all the candidates for the posts. The eight candidates were rejected for the post for being over-aged.
Agarwal has argued that there is non-availability of candidates eligible in terms of the prescribed age-limit of 30 years for the posts of special educator (primary).
"A large number of posts are thus lying vacant, leading to violation of the right to education of lakhs of disabled children," he contended.
"In the recruitment process initiated in 2012 against 1,610 vacancies of special educators in the MCD, only 47 eligible candidates could be found. A fresh process has been started in 2014 for filling up 1,692 vacancies, but the position with respect to unavailability of candidates eligible in terms of age remains unchanged," he submitted.
Agarwal also told the court that the posts had been created on the high court's 2009 order where it directed recruitment of at least two special educators in each school, but even after a lapse of five years, no recruitments have taken place.
