Fill up spl grade teacher posts of 2008, HC orders state

HYDERABAD: Taking up the long standing DSC-2008 issue, the Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the state government to take steps to fill up all the vacant 3,500 secondary grade teacher (SGT) posts with those who had qualified through the District Selection Commitee of 14 years ago.

A division bench comprising Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili and Justice Kaja Sharat was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by DSC-2008 candidates, who had qualified but were not selected due to various reasons, the most important being amending the selection process after the notification was released and the written exams were conducted.

Senior counsel L. Ravichander, Bobbili Srinivas and other counsel argued the case of the petitioners before the Telangana High Court bench. After hearing the contentions from both sides, the bench, without going into its merits, directed the government to fill up the SGT posts immediately.

The then state government of undivided Andhra Pradesh had issued the DSC-2008 notification on December 6, 2008, to recruit 52,655 teachers, including 30,558 special grade teachers.

During the selection process, a government order, GO Ms No. 28 dated Janauary 29, 2009, was issued, reserving 30 per cent posts —about 10,200 — of the notified 30,558 SGT posts. It said that for the remaining 70 per cent SGT posts, both BEd and DEd candidates were eligible. Following this, many candidates missed out on selection.

Challenging GO Ms No. 28, some BEd candidates approached the state Administrative Tribunal, which dismissed their petitions. Aggrieved by the same, some candidates from Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh approached the High Court.