HC refuses to stay Sikhya Sahayak enrolment process

As per a notification issued last month, the state government is now in the process of recruiting as many as 24,000 Sikhya Sahayaks for the state to run the ambitious Central government scheme of `Free and Compulsory Education for All`.

While the government has fixed different educational qualification for different categories of posts with minimum qualification being Plus II with Certificate Teacher (CT) course, as many as ten petitions were filed in the High Court seeking a stay in the recruitment process challenging the eligibility criteria fixed by the government.

More than 200 petitioners in separate petitions had brought to the notice of the High Court that while the minimum educational qualification for a primary teacher is matriculation with CT, the government has arbitrarily fixed Plus II with CT for Sikhya Sahayak.

Adjudicating over all the petitions jointly, the bench of Justice H S Bhalla refused to slap a stay on the recruitment process when the government informed the court that for quality education, the scheme mandates higher qualified candidates for the posts.

The HC, however, fixed February 28 to decide over the merit of the case, sources said.