The court established that NCTE guidelines for teacher eligibility take precedence over state recruitment criteria, ensuring candidates are evaluated based on merit and eligibility.

ORDER :

ARUN MONGA, J.

1. Petitioner herein, aspirant to become Teacher, inter-alia, seeks issuance of appropriate writ, order and / or direction commanding the respondents to grant her appointment on the post of Teacher Level-I with all consequential benefits, pursuant to advertisement dated 04.09.2013 (Annex.1).

2. Brief facts first. On February 11, 2011, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) issued guidelines for the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET). In accordance with these guidelines, the Rajasthan Teacher Eligibility Test (RTET) was conducted by the State Government, and the petitioner appeared for and successfully cleared the examination in 2012. Subsequently, on16.06.2013, the State Government issued a notification regarding seat reservations in the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) area. The notification stipulated that 45% of the seats would be reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, 5% for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, and the remaining 50% for General candidates residing within the TSP area.

2.1 On 04.09.2013, the respondents issued an advertisement for the direct recruitment of 20,000 Teacher Grade-III (Level I & II) posts. The petitioner, being eligible, applied for the position of Teacher Grade-III (Level I) under the OBC (Women) category, indicating her residence in the TSP area.

2.2 Subsequently, the 16.06.2013 reservation notification was quashed by this Court. As a result, the State Government issued a revised notification on 04.07.2016, which amended the earlier reservation policy. Under the new guidelines, the 50% seats initially reserved for TSP General candidates were now to be filled by residents of the TSP area, regardless of their caste.

2.3 The respondents later announced the results of the recruitment process. Although the petitioner initially did not meet the merit threshold with a score of 128.33 marks, the results were subsequently revised. Following the revision, the cut-off for the TSP General (Women) category was set at 111.27 marks, and the petitioner’s score qualified her for merit in this category.

2.4 Despite qualifying under the revised results, the petitioner was not considered for the TSP General (Women) category because she had not selected this category in her online application. On 06.09.2017, the petitioner requested the authorities to reconsider her eligibility for the TSP General (Women) category. However, her request was rejected.

2.5 Aggrieved, the petitioner filed SB Civil Writ Petition No. 11796/2017, which was disposed of on 04.12.2017, directing the petitioner to submit a representation for review. Despite this, the respondents rejected her representation on 14.12.2017, stating that she had since received a 5% relaxation for the School Teaching Certificate (‘STC’) course in 2011 and did not meet the OBC category cutoff. The respondent also claimed that her previous 5% relaxation in the STC course made her ineligible to be considered in TSP area, and she should be treated as an OBC candidate.

2.6 The petitioner contends that the 5% relaxation applied solely to her STC course and should not affect her eligibility for the current selection process. She maintains that as a resident of the TSP area, she should be treated as a TSP candidate, rather than being categorized under OBC. Hence, the instant petition.

3. Stand taken by the respondents to oppose the writ petition is contained in para 11 & 12 of the reply which are as follows:-

“11-12.That as regards contents of para no.11 and 12 of the writ petition, suffice it to state that clause-7 of the recruitment notification provides academic / professional qualification of a candidate. It is provided that a candidate is required to have 50% marks in his/her Senior Secondary examination. The petitioner was having 46.31% marks in her Senior Secondary examination. She availed the benefit of 5% relaxation as against prescribed qualification which was part of recruitment process and falls in the category of special concession. The petition