The Telangana High Court directed the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) to prepare a fresh list of selected candidates separately for graduates and non-graduates for 616 Physical Education Teacher (PET) posts.
Delivering verdict in a plea filed by some non-graduate candidates seeking to declare the TSPSC’s notification issued in 2017 for PET posts as illegal, Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao instructed the government to maintain status quo till fresh lists were prepared. The TSPSC issued notification to fill PET posts in residential schools run by Telangana government for SCS, STs, BCs and minorities.
These PETs were meant to train students of first to eight classes and ninth to tenth standards. While the first category posts had intermediate pass as qualification, graduation was required for the other category. The petitioners challenged the TSPSC notification for holding single exam for graduate and non-graduate candidates.
Citing various verdicts, the judge observed that graduates and non-graduates cannot be treated as equals. The action of the TSPSC treating both categories equally and fixing same cut-off marks for selection is violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, he said in the order.
Hence, a higher cut-off mark for graduate candidates and lower cut-off mark for non-graduates should be fixed, the judgement said. Justice Ramachandra Rao directed the Principal Secretary of Social Welfare Department and six other respondents to pay ₹5,000 to each of the petitioners towards costs.
Contempt of court
In a related development, Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao imposed fine of ₹2,000 on TSPSC chairman Ghanta Chakrapani and TSPSC secretary A. Vani Prasad holding them guilty of contempt of court. The order was passed after the petitioners, who challenged the PET notification and secured an interim order, filed petition alleging that the two had wilfully disobeyed the HC interim orders by declaring results of the exam.
The judge directed the State government to make an adverse entry in the service record of Ms. Vani Prasad and initiate disciplinary action against her.
