The Allahabad High Court, in a recent order, declined to extend the reservation benefits under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category for the recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers held in 2020. This decision was grounded in the fact that the recruitment process had commenced before the enactment of the Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation for EWS) Act, 2020, published on August 31, 2020. The Act explicitly states in Section 13 that it shall not apply to selection processes initiated before its commencement.

Dismissing a series of writ petitions filed by Shivam Pandey and others, Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery highlighted that the process of appointing 69,000 assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh had begun on May 16, 2020, well before the enactment of the EWS Act on August 31, 2020. Consequently, the savings clause in Section 13 dictates that the provisions of the Act would not be applicable, and the recruitment process would be governed by the laws and government orders in place before the Act’s commencement.

The backdrop to this legal dispute lies in the state government’s issuance of an order in December 2018 to conduct the assistant teacher recruitment examination in 2019. All petitioners qualified in the unreserved (general) category. Subsequently, the government initiated the process of selecting 69,000 assistant teachers for appointment in primary schools across the state. During the proceedings, following the 103rd amendment to the Constitution of India, the petitioners obtained EWS certificates, seeking 10% reservation in the recruitment process. However, by the time the writ petitions were addressed, the selection process had concluded, and the petitioners were not selected due to their lower merit ranking.

Source: PTI

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