TN GOVT SEEKS SC REVIEW, SAYS TET REQUIREMENT NOT APPLICABLE TO TEACHERS APPOINTED BEFORE 2010:

The Tamil Nadu Government has filed a review petition before the Supreme Court challenging its recent ruling mandating that even teachers appointed prior to the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) must acquire the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) qualification within two years, provided they have more than five years of service left. The judgment, delivered on September 1, has wide implications for teachers across several states, particularly Tamil Nadu, where a large section of the teaching workforce has not yet cleared TET.

In its review petition, the Tamil Nadu Government argued that the Court’s interpretation extends the mandate beyond what was intended under the RTE Act. According to the State, Section 23 of the Act clearly distinguishes between future appointments and appointments made under relaxed norms during periods of teacher shortages. Section 23(1), it submitted, applies to recruitments made after the Act came into effect on 1 April 2010, setting TET as the minimum qualification. Section 23(2), on the other hand, empowers the Central Government to relax these minimum qualifications temporarily in case of shortages, subject to the condition that teachers appointed during this period must acquire the qualification within five years.

The petition contends that the proviso to Section 23(2), which requires those without the requisite qualification to acquire it within five years, applies only to teachers appointed under these relaxed norms and not to those who were validly recruited before 2010 under existing state service rules. By extending this requirement retrospectively to pre-2010 teachers, the judgment effectively disqualifies thousands who had been lawfully appointed, thereby going against legislative intent and long-established service law principles.

The plea emphasized that Tamil Nadu, along with other states such as West Bengal and Odisha, had availed of the relaxation provision under Section 23(2) due to inadequate teacher training institutions. In Tamil Nadu alone, the government employs 4,49,850 teachers, of whom nearly 3,90,458 are not TET-qualified. If the impugned directions are enforced, the State warned, the education system would face “imminent collapse,” as the mass disqualification of such a large number of teachers would disrupt classroom instruction and severely impact millions of schoolchildren. This, it submitted, would infringe upon the constitutional guarantee under Article 21A, which ensures every child’s right to free and compulsory education.

The government also invoked the principle of proportionality, asserting that while improving teaching standards is an important and legitimate objective, imposing TET retrospectively on pre-2010 appointees is manifestly disproportionate. The plea argued that compelling such teachers to clear the TET within two years, under the threat of disqualification, would force them to divert attention away from teaching, ultimately undermining the quality of education delivered to children. Instead, the State suggested less intrusive alternatives such as in-service training, capacity-building initiatives, refresher courses, and bridging programs. These measures, it argued, could achieve the same goal of enhancing teaching quality without destabilizing the existing workforce or threatening livelihoods.

In conclusion, the review petition urged the Supreme Court to clarify that the five-year TET mandate applies prospectively, covering only those appointed after 1 April 2010 under relaxed norms, and not to teachers who were already serving before the Act came into force. The State maintained that such a clarification is essential to balance the aim of improving educational standards with the practical realities of sustaining an effective and stable school system.