Protest for justice lasted 640 days, find out what happened when

Lucknow: The double bench of the Lucknow High Court has given directions to release a fresh list of successful candidates in the much talked about 69 Thousand Teachers Recruitment in UP. The reserved category candidates had been waiting for this decision for a long time. This is why protests were held for 640 days. Sometimes the residence of the Chief Minister was surrounded, sometimes that of the Deputy Minister and sometimes the residence of ministers. Big leaders including Akhilesh Yadav, Chandra Shekhar Azad and Sanjay Singh supported the candidates. Amarendra Singh Patel, who led the agitating candidates, narrated how the success story of this 640-day-long movement has progressed.

Instructions to cancel all selection lists

Amarendra Singh Patel said that Justice Attaur Rahman Masoodi and Justice Brijraj Singh had taken this decision through video conferencing on August 13. The High Court has ordered to cancel all the selection lists made so far for the recruitment of 69 teachers and to draw up a new list and make appointments in accordance with the provisions of the Reservation Rules, 1994. The court has also said that if the candidates working on this recruitment are affected, they will not be dismissed.

The hiring process also began in 2018

The Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Board had arranged for the recruitment of 69 thousand teachers in the year 2018. It was alleged that the reserved category candidates did not follow the recruitment norms properly. Regarding which the candidates had approached the court. The main party in this was Armendra Singh Patel. After the court’s decision, he said that all the candidates are grateful to the court. We have got justice. He also said that now the government should give employment to the candidates without any delay in this matter.

Know what happened when

• The Department of Basic Education organized the recruitment of 69 thousand teachers in 2018. Their exam was held on January 6, 2019, and the result was published on May 21, 2020.
• On May 31, 2020, the Department of Basic Education published a selection list of 67,867 candidates.
• In this list, the candidates belonging to the reserved category (Divyangjan, Dalit and Other Backward Classes) found that they had not been given reservation as per the standard. In this regard, the reserved category candidates put forward their views before the officials of the Basic Education Department. But the issue was not resolved.
• The deprived reservation candidates filed petitions before the National Commission for Backward Classes, National Commission for Scheduled Castes etc. for getting justice. In which after a year of hearing, the National Commission for Backward Classes submitted its report to the state government on April 29, 2021. In which it was clarified that in the recruitment of 69 thousand teachers, the backward class candidates did not get reservation as per the standard.
• The officials of the Basic Education Department refused to accept the commission’s report. Then, the reserved category candidates started a continuous protest from June 22, 2021, to get the commission’s report implemented.
• On 6th September 2021, thousands of parents and reserved category candidates gathered at Eco Garden, Lucknow and conveyed their demands to Chief Minister Yogi through a protest.
• On September 7, 2021, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath constituted a five-member inquiry committee under the chairmanship of Board of Revenue Chairman Mukul Singhal.
• The inquiry committee, which lasted for three months, made its report available to Chief Minister Yogi. The Chief Minister found in the inquiry committee report that in 69,000 recruitments of teachers, reservations were not given to candidates from the reserved category as per norms.
• On 23rd December 2021, the Chief Minister met a delegation of reserved category candidates and directed the officials of the Basic Education Department to immediately appoint the deprived reservation candidates.
• Even after the order of the then Minister of Basic Education through a press release dated December 24, 2021, the officials of the Department of Basic Education failed to comply with the order.
• On January 5, 2022, the Department of Basic Education released a list of 6,800 reserved category candidates. But due to the implementation of the code of conduct for assembly elections, the process could not be continued. Meanwhile, some candidates filed a petition in the High Court against the released selection list of 6,800. The High Court suspended the selection list.
• The issue of recruitment of 69,000 teachers was pending in the High Court for over a year. Due to weak advocacy by the government advocates and departmental officials, the High Court cancelled the 6800th selection list on March 13, 2023. The reserved category candidates were left dejected and mentally disturbed by this order.
• The reserved category candidates brought the decision of the single courtroom to the double courtroom. After the hearing of this case was over, the double courtroom had reserved the decision for March 18, 2024.
• On 13 August 2024, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court took a decision to re-release the selection list.