Today, Supreme Court provided a ray of hope to 1.72 Lakh ‘Shiksha Mitra’ of Uttar Pradesh. The apex court ruled in favour of them and announced a verdict which says that the 1.72 lakh ‘Shiksha Mitra’ will not be removed, but the Court mentioned that the Shiksha Mitra or assistant teachers will have to clear the Uttar Pradesh's Teachers Eligibility Test (UPTET) in two attempts.
The Supreme Court also cleared the ambiguity around the UPTET. It ordered that the UPTET is mandatory for becoming an assistant teacher. The Supreme Court also recognized the experience of ‘Shiksha Mitra’. The order says that the teachers who will take the UPTET will also be given weightage for their experience as teachers and the academic records of these teachers will also be scrutinized.
Earlier, the Allahabad High court cancelled their employment. As a consequence, the assistant teachers had to knock on the door of the Supreme Court. The Assistant teachers were represented in the Apex Court by senior lawyer and Congress Leader Salman Khurshid, Amit Sibal, Nitesh Gusa, Jayant Bhushan and RS Suri.
The main argument of the legal team of the assistant teachers was that these teachers had been working for many years and that their situation was not improving and rejecting their employment would dismiss their whole experience in vain and it would also jeopardize their future careers without any reason. The lawyers demanded that their clients be given relief under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, as per the report.
Apart from clearing BTC and TIT, these all of these assistant teachers are graduates. Some of these assistant teachers have been teaching for the many years. A lawyer representing these teachers has told the Supreme Court that his clients have been sidelined by the high court. On behalf of his clients, the lawyer appealed to the Supreme Court that these teachers be given proper appointments as assistant teachers.
The shortage of teachers in Uttar Pradesh was also cited as reason that Shiksha Mitra should be appointed as teachers. This decision of the Supreme Court is welcoming for obvious reasons. It will give those teachers another fair chance to intact their employment and proof their credibility.