August 11, 2023 judgment declaring B.Ed. candidates not eligible for appointment as primary-grade teachers should be ‘prospective in operation’: SC

While hearing the matter related to the question of eligibility for B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education) degree holders for appointment as primary school teachers on April 08, 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) of India clarified, “We hold that the judgment delivered by this Bench on 11.08.2023 (B.Ed. candidates not eligible for becoming primary school teachers) shall be prospective in operation but only those candidates who were appointed without any disqualification imposed by any Court of law and were in regular appointment…where notice of advertisement specified B.Ed. as a qualification, their services shall not be disturbed because of this judgment.” The bench also stated that the clarification should not apply to the state of Madhya Pradesh on whose application the clarification has been given but also to pan India. The clarification was delivered by a two-judge bench of the SC constituting Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia. During the proceedings, Justice Bose said, “Considering the fact that B.Ed. applicants are claiming that they had entered their employment as per qualification criteria devised by the appointing authority…it should go in favor of retention of their employment.” Concluding the order, Justice Dhulia remarked, “you will be saved if, when you are selected and subsequently you are appointed, B.Ed. was one of the qualifications…second, if there is no such thing as ‘subject to this order, subject to that order’...” Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankarnarayanan, Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta presented the arguments or contentions before the court yesterday (April 08).