Chennai, July 8 (IANS) The Madras High Court on Wednesday granted an interim stay on the publication of the results of the Tamil Nadu Teacher Eligibility Test (TNTET), directing the state government and the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) not to release the results until July 24.

The interim order was passed by a bench of Justice P.D. Asha while hearing a batch of petitions filed by three teachers, including Ramakrishnan, who challenged the qualifying marks prescribed for candidates belonging to the general category.

The TNTET notification for recruitment to Secondary Grade Teacher and Graduate Teacher posts was issued on August 11 last year. The written examinations were conducted on November 15 and 16.

A total of 92,412 candidates appeared for Paper I meant for Secondary Grade Teacher eligibility, while 3,31,923 candidates took Paper II for Graduate Teacher eligibility.

The petitioners contended that although the Teachers Recruitment Board could have published the results within a month of the examination, the results have still not been declared despite several months having elapsed. They also questioned the disparity in qualifying marks prescribed for different categories of candidates. Until last year, candidates from the general category were required to secure at least 60 per cent marks (90 out of 150) to qualify, while candidates from reserved categories needed 55 per cent (82 out of 150). However, under a Government Order issued on January 28, the qualifying marks for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates were reduced to 40 per cent, while those for Backward Classes and Most Backward Classes were fixed at 50 per cent.

The petitioners argued that the minimum qualifying marks for candidates in the general category should also be reduced to 50 per cent, pointing out that Bihar follows a 50 per cent benchmark for general category candidates in its teacher eligibility examinations. They further submitted that the notification for postgraduate teacher recruitment had prescribed only 50 per cent qualifying marks for general category candidates, making the higher benchmark in the Teacher Eligibility Test discriminatory.

During the hearing, the Tamil Nadu government informed the court that it was in the process of taking a policy decision on the issue of reducing the qualifying marks for general category candidates.

Taking note of the government’s submission, Justice Asha adjourned the matter to July 24 and directed that the results of the Teacher Eligibility Test should not be published until then. The interim order is expected to delay the announcement of results for more than 4.2 lakh candidates who appeared for the examination across the state.

–IANS

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