The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to challenge the verdict of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court ordering a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the irregularities in the examination to recruit 68,500 assistant teachers in government primary schools.
The government will also challenge the High Court order quashing the appointment of 12,460 assistant teachers by the previous Samajwadi Party government in December, 2016.
“The government will first approach the division bench of the Allahabad High Court and if we do not get any relief, we will move the Supreme Court,” a senior official told ‘The Pioneer’ here on Friday.
Additional Chief Secretary (Primary Education) Prabhat Kumar on Thursday apprised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of the court’s direction for a CBI probe and the CM directed him to protect the interests of the assistant teachers, who had passed the test and had joined duty.
Sources said that against recruitment of 68,500 assistant teachers, the government has issued appointment letters to more than 40,000 successful candidates.
Similarly, of the 12,460 teachers recruited in December 2016, over 6,000 have joined their duties.
The official said that as the High Court had only ordered a CBI probe and had not stalled the recruitment process, the ongoing process would not be stopped.
“Our contention is that there is no need of a CBI probe in this case as it was not a criminal act and already the state government had gone for a probe into the entire process,” the official said.
Earlier, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the irregularities in selection of 68,500 assistant teachers in 2018 for the government-run primary schools in the state.
The court had also set aside recruitment of 12,460 assistant teachers made by the previous Samajwadi Party government.
Both the verdict were passed by a single judge bench of Justice Irshad Ali.