HC stays appointment of 69,000 teachers in UP | Economic Times

Lucknow: The high court has stayed the appointment of 69,000 assistant teachers to junior basic schools run by the Board of Basic Education in Uttar Pradesh following petitions over the answer key used in the examination. Petitioners had appealed that certain questions “on the face of it were erroneous, certain answers incorrect, some questions were ambiguous and a few of them debatable or argumentative and hence had multiple correct answers”. They had said aspirants should have been given the benefit of such questions which could have helped them cross the minimum cut-off marks. 76184660Siding with the petitioners the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court observed that there had been a “material error in evaluation” of the question paper, as a result of which a large number of candidates were liable to suffer for no fault of theirs. In its order, a copy of which was seen by ET, the bench said the provisional answer key along with the objections be referred to experts appointed by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, and listed the case for July 12. The large-scale appointment has been an ongoing effort by the Adityanath government. However, the appointment has been mired in several litigations ever since the exercise started. On May 23, the SC had sought replies from the state government on pleas challenging the Allahabad HC’s decision that had upheld the government’s decision to keep higher cut-off marks. The state had changed the cut-off to 65% from 45% for general category and to 60% from 40% for reserved category.