Periodic conduct of mandatory eligibility examinations is a constitutional requirement for fair public recruitment. An authority's failure to conduct such tests at regular intervals constitutes an arbitrary exclusion of new candidates, necessitating the suspension of ongoing recruitment processes to ensure constitutional equality and professional meritocracy.

JUDGMENT :

SRI ANANDA SEN, J.

1. Pursuant to the request made by this Court yesterday, today the Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Government of Jharkhand is present in the Court to assist this Court on this issue.

2. In this writ petition, petitioners have prayed for the following reliefs:-

I. For commanding upon the respondent no. 9 to 11 in the nature of certiorari for quashing and setting aside the entire recruitment process which the respondent no. 9 to 11 has initiated vide advertisement no. 13/2023 considering the fact that the said selection process has been in utter violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, restricted and reserved the participation for the candidates who could appear and qualify in the State TET conducted in the year 2013 and 2016 and is in turn completely breaching the equality clause in relation to the petitioners and similarly situated other candidates who all have become eligible after 2016 and are getting totally ousted just because of the respondents having breached the provisions as contained in NCTE Guidelines dated 11.02.2011 and the State Rules of 2019 for non-conducting of the State TET Examination after the year 2016.

II. For issuance of appropriate writ(s)/order(s)/direction(s) to hold and declare that the action of the State respondent in not conducting the State TET ever since 2016 and proceeding to fill up the posts of teachers through the above impugned advertisement is amounting to making the TET qualification as 'the only eligibility criteria for appointment' with which as per the mandate of the NCTE Guidelines dated 11.02.2011 has been made 'only one of the eligibility criteria for appointment conferring no right to a person qualified' and that the respondents cannot be allowed to do a thing indirectly which they cannot do otherwise as per law and provisions of the Constitution of India.

III. For issuance of writ(s)/order(s) or direction(s) for holding and declaring that on account of the respondent state authorities not conducting the State TET Examination for not even on a single occasion ever since the year 2016 has amounted to and is also amounting to a complete bar/restriction upon the petitioners and similarly situated others and thereby clearly violating the mandate of article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India in relation to the advertisement no. 13/2023 for recruitment of 26001 teachers in the schools of State Government particularly when the conduct of the State respondents is also in complete breach of NCTE notification dated 23.08.2010, NCTE Guidelines dated 11.02.2011 and the Jharkhand Teachers Eligibility Test Rules, 2019 which though clearly mandates '(i) That the Jharkhand Academic Council or the competent authority of the State government shall conduct the State TET Examination every year and the candidates having qualified shall be eligible to be appointed in the primary schools and (ii) that a person who scores 60% or more in the TET Exam will be considered as TET pass and school managements (Government, Local Bodies, Government aided and unaided) should give weightage to the TET scores in the recruitment process, however, qualifying the TET would not confer a right on any person for recruitment/employment as it is only one of the eligibility criteria for appointment.

IV. For further issuance of appropriate writ(s)/order(s) /direction(s) to hold and declare that the action of the State respondents in neither conducting the State TET Examination ever since the year 2016 nor taking an appropriate decision as per clause 10 of the NCTE Guidelines dated 11.02.2011 amounts to restricting the