The Madras High Court bench here today ordered notice to officials of National Council for Teacher Education and Secretary, Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board, on a plea seeking quashing of NCTE's notification and state government order giving 5 per cent relaxation in minimum pass marks for candidates belonging to reserved categories.
Justice K K Sasidharan, who ordered issue of notice to the officials of the Council and the Board, said as the list had been released, the appointments would be subject to the outcome of this writ petition.
The petitioner Jayakrishna, an aspirant, submitted that after quashing the G.O. And the notification, the TRB should give weightage to seniority in employment registration, experience in teaching before making the appointment pursuant to the TET (Teachers' Eligibility Test) conducted on August 17 and 18.
Jayakrishna said NCTE had no jurisdiction to give such a notification since the Act empowered the Academic Authority to lay down minimum qualification only. Relaxing the minimum passing mark for reserved categories was not possible, he said, adding only weightage could be considered based on the marks obtained after the pass marks.
Weightage for seniority in registration in employment exchange and for teaching experience must be given in addition to the weightage given. In recruitment of PG Assistants, weightage was given to employment registration, seniority and experience. Similarly, the TRB could give for school teachers.
The petitioner also sought a direction to stay the appointment of teachers for which selection list (for exams conducted in August 2013) had been released on August 10.
The minimum pass mark for TET is 60 per cent and this had been relaxed by five per cent for SCs, STs and OBCs. The NCTC or the TRB had no jurisdiction to do this relaxation. "Their duty is only to fix the minimum mark for pass and they don't have powers to relax," the petitioner said.
