"Unconstitutional": SC quashes Jharkhand decision to grant 100% quota to locals in govt jobs
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that reservation cannot compromise the quality of education, as it struck down the Jharkhand government's decision to reserve 100% teaching posts in government-run tribal district schools for locals.
The top court noted that the quality of education of the school-going children cannot be compromised by giving 100 percent reservation in favor of the teachers of the same districts and prohibiting meritorious teachers' appointments.
The top court was deciding a batch of appeals filed by tribal teachers in Jharkhand's 13 scheduled tribe districts who were suddenly out of job after the Jharkhand high court in September 2020 set aside the state government's July 14, 2016 notification issued by the Governor appointing tribal candidates as teachers in 13 tribal districts, including Ranchi.
A bench of Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna said: "If the candidates belonging to other areas (non-scheduled areas/districts) are given an opportunity to impart education (who may be more meritorious than the candidates belonging to the scheduled areas/districts) than it will be more beneficial to the students belonging to the scheduled areas and their quality of the education shall certainly improve.
The HC had passed the order on a petition filed by non-tribal candidates who lost the opportunity to work in tribal area government schools.
However, instead of directing for the recruitment to be conducted afresh, the bench struck a balance by asking the state to revise the merit list with respect to the entire state based on the cut off obtained by the last selected candidate in each TGT subject. By this, the Court ensured that government schools in scheduled and non-scheduled areas have a mix of teachers belonging to tribal and non-tribal categories.
The bench noted that it may be true that so far as basic education (at the level of primary section) is concerned, it may help students at the primary level (while providing basic education) to be taught in their own tribal language. But the same principle may not be applicable when the question is of providing education at a higher level viz. above Class 5, it added.
Holding the notification unconstitutional, the high court quashed the appointments of the trained graduate teachers made pursuant to the advertisement in the scheduled districts relating to the local residents of those districts.