CTET 2019: SC notice to Centre, CBSE on plea seeking 10 per cent quota

New Delhi, May 16: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to Central government on a plea seeking 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker section in Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) 2019. The pex court also refused to stay the notification saying it's a policy decision.

A vacation bench comprising justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna issued notices to the Centre and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on the plea and asked them to respond to it by July 1, the next date of hearing.

The court was hearing a plea by some petitioners belonging to economically weaker sections and planning to appear in CTET 2019.

The petitioners told the apex court that CBSE published an advertisement on January 23, 2019 for conducting CTET in which benefit of ten per cent reservation has not been given to candidates belonging to economically weaker sections of society.

The petitioners, who claimed to be belonging to economically weaker section of society, are candidates aspiring to appear in CTET-2019.

"Recently the CBSE has published advertisement dated January 23, 2019 for conducting Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET), 2019 in which this benefit has not been given to the economically weaker section of the society and therefore the present writ petition is being filed to make sure that people covered under economically weaker section of the society are given similar benefit like other reserved category (SC, ST and OBC) starting with CTET-2019 advertisement," it said.

The top court had earlier on May 13 said the policy of reservation can't be applied in case of qualifying examinations and can only be applied at the time of final selection.

The CTET, 2019 is a central government test that gives scores to aspiring teachers, in an examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

The Constitution (One hundred and third amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by Parliament and came into force on January 16.

Under the amended Act, the Centre has provided for a 10 per cent reservation to the citizens from general category belonging to the economically weaker section of the society, in addition to the already existing reservation policy for the benefit of other reserved categories such as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Class and Physically Handicapped.