Orissa High Court. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, March 24: Orissa High Court today closed hearing and reserved judgment on the validity of guidelines adopted by the state government for engagement of Sikshya Sahayaks.

The court had not issued any interim stay order on the recruitment process, but had imposed restrictions on issuing of appointment orders on March 8.

The outcome of the case assumes significance as the state government had undertaken a massive recruitment drive of Sikshya Sahayaksto implement the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which had been enforced since April 1, 2010.

Under the drive, 1,24,000 Sikshya Sahayaks had been planned for appointment in all 30 districts across the state. All district collectors had been asked to complete the process of recruitment by March 2011.

The single-judge bench of Justice H.S. Bhalla closed hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the guidelines prescribed by the state school and mass education department’s resolution issued on January 10, 2011. The petitioners, who were aspirants, had mostly challenged fixation of Plus Two or its equivalent as eligibility criteria. The petitioners had sought relaxation of minimum qualification to matriculation and Certified Training (CT) as in the case of elementary cadre rule for appointment of primary school teachers.

On the other hand, the state government had argued in its counter affidavit that elementary cadre rules were not applicable to Sikshya Sahayaks as they were not primary school teachers.

Moreover, the National Teachers’ Training Institute, which is the nodal academic authority, had fixed the Plus Two minimum qualification norm, school and mass education department had pleaded.

Several other petitions had been filed seeking relaxation of maximum age limit of 42 years by non-fixation of outer age-limit and allowing an applicant to submit applications in more than one district. Justice H.S. Bhalla indicated that a segregated order would be given after their pleas are taken into consideration. According to the school and mass education department’s resolution on guidelines for engagement of Sikshya Sahayaks, they will be engaged in each education district by the respective Zilla Parishad by a selection committee, which will be headed by the collector-cum-chief executive officer of Zilla Parishad as chairman.