New Delhi: Reserved category candidates who felt undone by the faulty recruitment process of 69,000 assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh have intensified their stir against the Adityanath-led government. Even though the Allahabad high court had on August 13 set aside the faulty selection lists for the recruitment and ordered the state government to issue fresh ones within three months, the candidates, who have been protesting on the streets for the last four years, want immediate resolution with a fixed timeline for appointments.
“Those teachers who should be in school have been roaming about the streets for the last four years,” said one of the protestors Amrendra Patel on September 5, celebrated in the country as Teachers’ Day.
The OBC and Dalit candidates have turned up the heat on the government since September 2 when they initiated a new kind of protest–sit-in and gherao outside the homes of OBC leaders and ministers in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP-led) government.
Since September 2, the protesting candidates, who are anxious to know their fate in the selection, have staged sit-ins outside the residences of deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, technical education minister Ashish Patel and his wife Union minister Anupriya Patel, BJP Uttar Pradesh president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and panchayati raj minister Om Prakash Rajbhar. Several protesting candidates have fallen ill during the protests.
The protesting candidates fear that although the high court provided them relief after a long legal battle, the matter could once again get entangled in a legal mess if the order is challenged in the Supreme Court. So far, the Adityanath government has promised that it would implement the directions of the high court and not challenge the verdict in the apex court.
However, general category candidates who are expected to lose their jobs due to the impending overhaul in the selection process, have already approached the apex court.
The reserved candidates feel the Adityanath government is being evasive in issuing the fresh lists and have demanded that it implements the high court’s order immediately and issues a fresh selection list.
They also want the government to initiate the appointment process of the teachers and take action against the officials who made faulty lists neglecting reservation norms in the first place. A fourth demand by them is that a new batch of officials should prepare the fresh lists.
Through this, the recruitment process can be carried out in a “transparent” manner, said Amrendra Patel, who has been leading the ‘69,000’ protests. “Now that the court has given a decision, it must be followed,” he said.
A candidate holding a placard during the assistant teacher recruitment protests in Lucknow. Photo: Special Arrangement
Another candidate Shikha Pal (39) said that due to the legal entanglement of the process, thousands of assistant teacher aspirants have been protesting on the streets since 2019. Pal, an OBC, secured 100 marks in the examination, three more than the cut-off for the general category candidates. However, she, like hundreds of others, could not make the selection list due to the discrepancies in the reservation policy. If the matter gets entangled in the apex court, Pal says she fears that it would extend their misery.
“If it goes to the SC, we would have to wait for some more years and remain unemployed till then. So many of us have been overaged to apply for other recruitment exams,” she said.
The Allahabad high court on August 13 set aside the selection lists issued on June 1, 2020 and January 5, 2022 by the government for the recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers and directed it to release a fresh list of the selected candidates within three months. The court’s decision validated the allegations that there were discrepancies in the implementation of the reservation policy while making these appointments. The state government had already admitted to it.
The Adityanath government on August 18 evening stated that it would follow the high court’s directions and not challenge it in the Supreme Court. But that has not been enough to assure the protesting OBC and Dalit candidates.
The exams to recruit 69,000 assistant teachers were held in 2019. But since then the process has been mired in controversies and legal battles especially over anomalies in implementing reservation for reserved category candidates.
Some reserved candidates had contended that there were discrepancies in the reservation policy. They underlined that despite securing more marks than the cut-off for general candidates, they were not allowed to be considered for recruitment under the general posts but were counted among reserved candidates.
As a result of this, the students highlighted that due representation was not given to the reserved category as per their prescribed quota and more than 50% of the general category candidates were selected. In other words, the reserved category candidates who secured marks above the general cut-off were also placed in the reserved category instead of the general category.
The issue turned into a political liability for the Adityanath government as it cast a big shadow on its promise of providing jobs to the youth.
The government eventually admitted to anomalies in the reservation policy and in a last gasp move ahead of the 2022 assembly election decided to appoint an additional 6,800 candidates as teachers from the reserved category. However, that was stalled by the high court.
A division bench of the high court on August 13, hearing 91 petitions, directed the stage government to implement the reservation policy as envisaged under Section 3 (6) of the Uttar Pradesh Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994. The court ruled that if a reserved category candidate acquires merit equivalent to the merit prescribed for the general category, then the Meritorious Reserved Category candidate shall be migrated to the general category.
Candidates protesting against the Uttar Pradesh assistant teacher recruitment exam in Lucknow. Photo: Special Arrangement
Although the government has three months to fully complete the process, political pressure is building on it as the recruitment concerns the sensitive issue of reservation. Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to hold bypoll elections on ten assembly seats soon.
Given the fact that the BJP received a massive setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the party is under pressure to not concede ground further to its opponent Samajwadi Party (SP), which has backed the ‘69,000’ recruitment aspirants.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav has accused the BJP government of tampering with reservation like no other government.
“First they snatch the rights of these youth and after they find a way to get their rights through the court, the government is putting roadblocks in that,” said Yadav, offering his support to the protesting candidates.
On Wednesday, he penned a note for the protesting candidates, alleging that the BJP was deliberately delaying the fresh lists as it wanted to deceive both reserved and general category candidates by pitting them against each other.
“The truth is that the BJP was never in favour of giving you jobs,” Yadav said.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister warned them that the appointments would “fall prey to an evasive litigation” process of the government or to red-tape.
Many senior BJP and allied leaders have tried to calm the situation through assurances to the candidates that they would get justice. Addressing a meeting of party workers, Union minister Anupriya Patel, president of the BJP-ally Apna Dal (Soneylal) recently said that her party had stood by the teachers and asked her ally to resolve the matter.
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“We expect from the state government that it takes all necessary steps to ensure justice to the candidates,” she said.
Her husband and Uttar Pradesh minister Ashish Patel stepped out of their residence on September 3 and received a memorandum from the protestors. Ashish Patel asked the protestors to have patience. The recruitment process was on track and was taking the expected time, he said.
“There will not be injustice against you, I assure you,” said Ashish Patel.
A day later, on September 4, the candidates met BJP Uttar Pradesh president Chaudhary, who assured them of “just action.” “BJP government will not allow injustice against any candidate,” Chaudhary said.
On September 2, a delegation of protestors met Keshav Prasad Maurya with their demands. Posting about it on social media later, he said he has instructed the concerned officials to immediately implement the court’s order.
“Today I met those teachers from the Dalit and OBC sections who are waiting for their appointment. After getting their rights through the decision of the high court, they are impatiently waiting for their appointment,” Maurya wrote.
On September 5, minister Rajbhar assured the candidates that he would set up a meeting with Adityanath so that they can directly raise the demand with him. However, when that would be scheduled is not known.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also questioned why the government, despite promising that it would follow the court’s order in a complete form, was yet to issue the appointment letters. She said this was “injustice.”
