PATNA: The Patna high court on Thursday asked the state government to assess its requirement and conduct Secondary Teacher Eligibility Test (STET) for candidates with commerce background within six months.
Candidates with commerce degree were not allowed to take part in the STET conducted last year.
A bench of Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay asked the state government to determine the number of vacant posts for commerce teachers at secondary and senior secondary government schools across the state.
“Notify the vacant posts within three months and send the requisition to Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) asking it to conduct STET for such candidates,” the court told the government.
The bench simultaneously disposed of the writ petitions of Mohammad Afroz and several others who had moved high court in August last year after candidates with commerce background were left out of STET-2019, which was conducted in the state after a gap of nearly nine years.
The high court’s order for conducting STET for commerce candidates is expected to provide relief to around 20,000 teacher aspirants in the state.
Petitioners’ counsels Ritika Rani, Dinu Kumar and Ritu Raj submitted that even if the test had already been conducted, the rights of the deserving candidates of commerce stream cannot be snatched.
They informed the court that more than 1,095 posts of commerce teachers are lying vacant in secondary and senior secondary schools in the state.
The BSEB informed the court that it only conducts the test as per requisition sent by the state government against vacancies.
Counsel Gyan Prakash had appeared for the exam board.
The state government, on its part, informed the court that there was no requirement for commerce teachers when the STET was conducted last year.
Standing counsel Jitendra Kumar Roy and Vinita Singh, who appeared for the state government, submitted that required infrastructure is being developed for appointing commerce teachers in the government schools.