JUDGMENT :

Vipin Sanghi, J.

The petitioners have preferred the present writ petitions to assail the communication / order bearing No. 236/XXIV-A/1/2021/18/2018 T.C. dated 10.02.2021, issued by the Secretary, Department of Elementary Education, Uttarakhand, Dehradun, whereby he recalled the earlier order bearing No. 103/XXIV-A-1/2-21-18/2018 T.C. dated 15.01.2021.

2. By the aforesaid order dated 15.01.2021, the said Secretary had conveyed the decision of the Government of Uttarakhand that such candidates, who have got the D.El.Ed training from the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in the State through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) for eighteen months in the years 2017-19, and who have fulfilled other prescribed standards and eligibility conditions for the post of Assistant Teacher (Primary), along with passing TET First, are also permitted to participate in the selection process of filling up the vacancies of Assistant Teachers (Primary) pursuant to the advertisements issued district-wise. The effect of the decision contained in the impugned communication dated 10.02.2021 was to render such candidates ineligible for participation in the process of selection to fill-up the vacancies of Assistant Teachers (Primary) in the State.

3. The case of the petitioners is that they were initially appointed as Assistant Teachers in private unaided Schools in different districts of the State of Uttarakhand. They were employed as Assistant Teachers during the period 2014-17. They state that they have experience of teaching students of primary schools from Classes 1 to 5. The petitioners possess Degree of graduation, and they have cleared the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET). They have also obtained the Diploma, as recognized by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), in elementary education through ODL mode, conducted by NIOS. The petitioners, therefore, claim that they are eligible for being considered for appointment as Assistant Teachers (Primary) in Government Primary Schools situated in the State of Uttarakhand. They have assailed the impugned order, since the petitioners and other similarly situated persons, possessing of Diploma of D.El.Ed. from NIOS through ODL mode, have been barred from applying for the post of Assistant Teachers (Primary) to be employed in the Government Primary Schools. This action of the respondents is stated to be arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.

4. At this stage itself, we may observe that the present dispute has arisen since the Diploma course of D.El.Ed, conducted by NIOS, undergone by the petitioners, was of the duration of eighteen months, and not two years, and the same was undergone through ODL mode, and not through the physical mode. While the petitioners claim that NCTE has recognized the said D.El.Ed course undergone by them as equivalent to the two-year Diploma in D.El.Ed, the respondent-State seeks to draw a distinction between the D.El.Ed. Diploma obtained by the petitioners, and the D.El.Ed. Diploma obtained by others in the normal course, which is a two-year course. On that premise, the petitioners are sought to be barred from participating in the process of recruitment as Assistant Teachers to be employed in the Government Primary Schools.

5. We may now take note of some of the background facts leading up to the present dispute.

6. Article 21A of the Constitution of India, which was inserted by way of the Eighty-sixth Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002, provided that the State should provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years, in such manner as the State may, by law, determine. In fulfillment of this Constitutional goal, the Parliament enacted ‘The Right of Children to FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION ACT , 2009’ (the Act). Section 3 of the Act states that every child of the age of six to fo