Plea against 7-year validity for TET certificate dismissed 

Vacation Judge N Sureshkumar, before whom the plea came, dismissed it after recording the submission of the government that already 1,500 teachers who had failed to clear TET are facing termination and lakhs of teacher aspirants are awaiting to take up the exam. Submissions were also made regarding the aspect that the government and the expert committee alone can decide on the pattern of question paper and the applicants cannot have a say on this.

The petitioner R Sakthivel of Krishnagiri had contended that the seven-year validity was contrary to clause 9(b) of the said notification. He sought to assign permanent validity to the TET certificate, treating TET as minimum qualification, providing eligibility to participate in further selection process of competitive examinations and consequently give exemption for the candidates possessing Tamil Nadu Teacher Eligibility Test (TNTET) Certificate.

The plea also sought the TRB to clarify as to whether the seven-years validity of TET certificate is applicable for non-selected candidate or selected candidate or both. Can it be considered that both the selected and the non-selected candidates must renew their TET certificate every seven years, in order to keep themselves updated and fit for teaching profession, the plea sought to know.

The plea also sought the authorities to consider SLET or a NET as qualifying Examination, which has a permanent validity and stay the Written Examination for Paper-II for the TET examination 2019 to be conducted on June 9, as per the Notification for the Tamil Nadu Teacher Eligibility Test.