Cuttack, May 10: The state government has been embroiled in a legal battle over its decision to enforce the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) for sikhsya sahayaks as a section of the primary school teachers have challenged the move in Orissa High Court.

The state school and mass education department had issued orders for disengagement of the sikshya sahayaks who had failed to clear the TET.

In another development, responding to a petition challenging the move, the high court has imposed restrictions on the disengagementby an interim stay order.

The case assumes significance as around 10,000 sikhsya sahayaks recruited in 2012 are likely to lose their jobs if the order is implemented as they had failed to clear the TET.

Initially, the state government had introduced the Odisha Teachers' Eligibility Test (OTET) as an eligibility criteria for recruitment of around 17,500 sikshya sahayaks (a category of primary school teachers whose jobs become regular in six years on the basis of career evaluation) in 2011-2012.

When a dispute was raised over the legality of introduction of the TET, the high court had in August 2012 permitted the state government to conduct eligibility test for appointment of teachers in primary and upper-primary schools on the condition that the government first completed the process of engagement of sikhsya sahayaks.

In its order, the court had, however, clarified that the candidates after being engaged as sikhsya sahayaks would have to clear the TET. The court had further specified that the TET qualifying process for them should be completed by the end of January 2013.

Implementing the high court order, the commissioner-cum-secretary of school and mass education department had on April 26, 2016 directed all collectors-cum-circle education officers to disengage the sikhsya sahayaks (recruited in 2012) who had failed to submit the OTET pass certificate.

Bighnaraj Mohapatra and 12 other sikhsya sahayaks of Ganjam district had sought quashing of the order, alleging it as "illegal and arbitrary". The petition came up for hearing on May 6.

"Granting interim relief, the single-judge bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad issued a stay order on the April 26, 2016, direction, while posting the matter for hearing, along with the reply of the state government, after summer vacation in June," counsel for the petitioners Prabodh Chandra Nayak said.

The petitioners pointed out that the resolution issued by the school and mass education department on June 4, 2012, as guideline for conducting TET had clearly indicated: "There shall be no restrictions for number of attempts a person can take for acquiring OTET certificate."

"Besides, the concept of OTET cannot be made applicable to the teachers who have already acquired training qualification such as BEd and CT (certificate training)," the petition contends.