Degree Of M.A. (Tamil) Cannot Be Equated With B.A./B.Sc./B.Ed. – SC Restores Promotion Order

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice B.V. Nagarathna has observed that the degree of M.A. (Tamil) could not be equated with B.A./B.Sc./B.Ed. Moreover, the Court held that both these degrees were pursued in different academic years by the Appellant, who was thus eligible for the promotion.

In this case, the Appellant was promoted to the post of B.T. Assistant (English) and prior thereto, he was granted permission to pursue his B.A. (English) under distance education from January 2012 to December 2014. He pursued his distance education in B.A. (English) and successfully completed the same in the month of December 2014. When the Appellant was pursuing his education in B.A. (English), the Appellant was granted permission to pursue M.A. (Tamil) which was a two-year distance education course between the Academic Years 2013-2015. He appeared in the examination for M.A. (Tamil) in May 2014 and May 2015 and successfully completed the same.

Respondent No.5 challenged the promotion of the Appellant. The Single Judge of the Madras High Court allowed the said writ petition and set aside the promotion of the Appellant to the post of B.T. Assistant (English). The Appellant preferred an appeal before the Division Bench of the High Court which was dismissed. This impugned judgment was challenged before the Supreme Court.

Counsel, Shri P.S. Sridharraj appeared on behalf of the Appellant while Counsel, Shri C. Solomon, represented the Respondent i.e. the State Authorities before the Apex Court.

The primary issue in this case was–

Whether the two degrees pursued simultaneously and had rendered the Appellant ineligible.

It was contended by the Appellant that Rule 14 of the relevant applicable Rules could not be applicable to the facts of the case as the Appellant pursued B.A. (English) and M.A. (Tamil) in different academic years. It was submitted that only in a case where B.A./B.Sc/B.Ed. degrees were obtained in the same academic year, the same was not permissible.

On the other hand, the Respondent argued that by obtaining two degrees simultaneously the Appellant has rendered himself ineligible as the Appellant did not fulfill the eligibility criteria.

The Court observed that the promotion of the Appellant to the post of B.T. Assistant (English) had been set aside by the High Court on the ground that the Appellant had obtained two degrees namely B.A. (English) and M.A. (Tamil) simultaneously and therefore as per Rule 14 he was ineligible for promotion.

According to the Court, as per Rule 14, it could be seen that the bar was against teachers who had obtained B.A./B.Sc./B.Ed degree simultaneously during the same academic year.

The Court asserted that in this case it could not be said that the Appellant had obtained the degree of B.A. (English) and M.A. (Tamil) during the same academic year. The Appellant had pursued his B.A. (English) from January 2012 to December 2014. He had then pursued his M.A. (Tamil) which was a two years distance education course between the academic years 2013-2014 to 2014-2015. Therefore, as per the Court, Rule 14 was not applicable to the case.  The degree of M.A. (Tamil) could not be equated with B.A./B.Sc./B.Ed.

Additionally, the Court held that as per the degree in B.A. (English), the Appellant could have been promoted to the post of B.T. Assistant (English). Moreover, it was opined that both the degrees secured by the Appellant could not be ignored.

Thus, the Supreme Court quashed and set aside the impugned judgment of the Division Bench of the Madras High Court. Consequently, the writ petition before the Single Judge also stood dismissed. The Court restored the order of promotion promoting the Appellant to the post of B.T. Assistant (English).

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