Supreme Court refuses to stay Andhra Pradesh teacher recruitment exam

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to hear a petition seeking stay of the exam conducted for recruitment of teachers in Andhra Pradesh, saying it cannot be stopped “midway”. “We do not create any mechanism for conducting exams. We do not have expertise in this,” a bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Manmohan told the counsel for the petitioner. The bench questioned the counsel for the petitioner as to why he did not approach the Andhra Pradesh High Court first. When the counsel pointed out that the high court is on summer vacation, the bench said, “The Andhra Pradesh High Court is reopening on June 16 after summer vacation. In view of this, we are not inclined to entertain this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner is free to approach the high court.” The counsel for the petitioner cited a government notification and said that the exam for district level recruitment was also to be conducted in multiple shifts. The lawyer said, “They are moving in the direction of computer based examination.” However, the bench said, “The examinations have started. We cannot stop them midway.” Additional Solicitor General S V Raju told the bench that more than one lakh candidates have already appeared in the examinations. The petition said that the state government has started the process to fill more than 16,000 posts of teachers and the examinations will be held from June 6 to July 6.