Eligibility qualifications for recruitment must be assessed based on the last date for application submission unless specified otherwise, rejecting the notion of a cut-off date.

JUDGMENT :

PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA, J.

1. Leave Granted.

2. The issue involved in this case relates to the appointments to the post of assistant teachers in primary schools in the State of West Bengal. This post is governed by the West Bengal Primary School Teachers Recruitment Rules, 2016,¹ [Framed under the West Bengal Primary Education Act, 1973] and the qualifications for appointment to the said post are prescribed in Rule 6 which is extracted below for ready reference:

“6. Qualifications.— (1) No person shall be appointed by the Council as a teacher unless he is a citizen of India and has completed the age of 18 years as on 1st day of January of the year of advertisement and has not completed the age of 40 years on the 1st day of January of the year of advertisement as specified in sub-rule (3).

(2) The candidate shall possess the minimum educational qualifications specified by the National Council for Teacher Education and the notification relating to eligibility of candidates issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of India (hereafter referred to as MHRD), from time to time, read with the relaxed qualifications issued by that Ministry from time to time and passed the TET.

(3) In the matter of appointment, priority shall be given to those eligible candidates who possess the minimum qualifications as specified by the National Council for Teacher Education and MHRD and thereafter, the eligible candidates with the relaxed qualification specified by the MHRD, may be considered and if candidates with relaxed qualifications are considered as teachers, such teachers under the relaxed qualification norms shall be appointed with an undertaking to acquire the minimum qualifications specified in the National Council for Teacher Education within a period of 2 years from the date of appointment.”

3. In this case, we are concerned with sub-rule (2) of Rule 6. This sub-rule was later amended by a notification dated 22.12.2020 in the following terms:

“(2) The candidate shall possess the minimum educational and training qualification as prescribed by the National Council for Teacher Education prevailing as on date of publication of recruitment notification.”

4. As is evident from the above, the minimum qualifications specified in Rule 6 of Recruitment Rules, 2016 will be those that are prescribed by the National Council for Teachers Education, [Hereinafter referred to as the ‘NCTE’/‘council’] a body constituted under the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 [Hereinafter referred to as the “NCTE Act]. In exercise of the power conferred by sub- section (1) of section 23 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, by notification dated 23.08.2010, [F. No. 61-03/20/2010/NCTE(N&S).] the NCTE laid down the minimum qualification for a person to be appointed as a teacher for class I to class VIII. The qualifications were amended from time to time, and the qualifications that were prevailing at the time when the recruitment notification for appointment of assistant teachers (primary) in the State of West Bengal was issued, were those prescribed by NCTE in its notification dated 29.07.2011., [F. No. 61-1/2011/NCTE(N&S).] The relevant portion of the said prescription is extracted hereinbelow for ready reference:

“1. Minimum Qualifications:

(i) Classes I-V

a) Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 2-year Diploma in Elementary Education (by whatever name known)

OR

Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 45% marks and 2-year Diploma in Elementary Education (by whatever name known), in accordance with the NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure), Regulations 2002.

OR

Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 4-year Bachelor of Elementary Education (B.El. Ed.)

OR

Senior Secondary (or its equivalent) with at least 50% marks and 2-year Diploma in Education (Special Education).

OR

Graduation and two year Diplo