MP High Court Rejects Plea by Reserved Category Teachers Seeking General Category Vacancies

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ruled that candidates from reserved categories who cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) by taking benefit of relaxed qualifying marks cannot later seek appointment under the unreserved category in teacher recruitment.

The judgment came while the court was hearing petitions challenging Clause 12.4 of the 2024 teacher recruitment notification issued by the Madhya Pradesh government. The petitioners had qualified the TET with marks that met the reserved category benchmark but fell short of the 60 per cent score required for general category candidates. Despite this, they argued that they should still be considered for unreserved posts because they had scored higher marks than some general category candidates in the final recruitment examination.

Rejecting the plea, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf observed that the relaxation granted at the eligibility stage cannot be ignored later during selection. The court noted that the petitioners entered the recruitment process only because they were allowed to qualify the TET under lower cut-off standards applicable to reserved categories.

The Bench held that once a candidate avails a concession specifically meant for a reserved category, they cannot subsequently claim migration to the general category contrary to the recruitment notification. According to the court, the recruitment rules clearly draw a distinction between candidates qualifying under general standards and those qualifying through relaxation.

The High Court further observed that reservation benefits are governed by the applicable recruitment framework and executive policy. Since the 2024 notification expressly barred such migration, the restriction could not be termed arbitrary or unconstitutional.

Accordingly, all the petitions were dismissed.