Mayawati Govt. to appeal against court order

Special Correspondent

High Court cancels appointment of 13,000 Urdu teachers in UP

State Government not authorised to start BTC training course in Urdu Court pulls up secretary of the Basic Education Department

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Government will file a special appeal in the Allahabad High Court against the court’s order to cancel the appointment of 13,000 Urdu teachers in primary schools.

The order was delivered by the single Judge Bench of Justice Arun Tandon on Friday.

Of the 13,000 assistant Urdu teachers selected during the Mulayam Singh regime in 2005-06, around 8,000 are undergoing two years’ training in Basic Teacher’s Course (BTC).

Shailesh Krishna, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, said here on Sunday that the appeal would be filed after studying the court’s order. Mr. Krishna said all legal options would be explored to enable the selected candidates to complete their training and subsequently get employed in primary schools as assistant Urdu teachers.

Mr. Krishna said the candidates were undergoing training at the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) for the last 10 months and were being paid a stipend of Rs. 2,500 a month.

On the need to file a Special Appeal in the High Court the thinking in the Mayawati Government circles is that a larger issue was involved. When contacted, the Principal Secretary, Basic Education, Rohit Nandan said Urdu teachers are being appointed since the 1950s.

Incidentally, Urdu was declared as the second official language of UP in the 1980s.

In his verdict, Mr. Justice Tandon said the State Government had not been granted permission to start special BTC training course in Urdu by the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) till date, in accordance with Section 14/15 of NCTE Act. The court held that in view of this, no special BTC training course in Urdu can be imparted by DIET..

The court quashed the Government Orders of February 16, 2005, March 18, 2006 and September 15, 2006 issued by the Mulayam Singh government.

The court pulled up the Secretary, Basic Education Department and said that despite there being no vacancies for Urdu teachers in primary schools, the posts of assistant teacher were converted into the post of assistant teacher (Urdu).

The High Court had ruled that the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education (Teachers) Service Rules, 1981, does not allow Urdu as a medium of education in primary schools.

Following the court verdict, hundreds of trainees and those selected for the course gheraoed the DIET office in Lucknow on Saturday and indulged in vandalism. Reports of protests were also received from Bijnor, Allahabad and Moradabad.