The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : No minimum age required for admission to teacher training course: Bench

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 08, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

No minimum age required for admission to teacher training course: Bench

Staff Reporter

"Officials cannot insist on a minimum age in the absence of a specific clause"

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled that a candidate cannot be denied admission to a teachertraining course on the ground of under age.

Passing orders on a writ petition, Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar said the Director of Teacher Training Education and Research Training was not justified in rejecting students below 18 years since neither the notification issued by the latter nor the regulations framed by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) prescribed the minimum age.

The Judge pointed out that as per the notification, the candidates were expected to have passed their Plus-Two examinations with 45 per cent marks. Besides, the maximum age for general category was fixed at 30 while it was relaxed to 35 for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe/physically challenged applicants and to 40 for orphans, deserted women and widows. There was no reference to the minimum age required to join the course. Similarly, the NCTE regulations, while fixing norms and standards for admission, did not enumerate on the minimum or maximum age required, the Judge said. The officials could not insist on a minimum age in the absence of a specific clause, he said. Petitioner D. Bagya of Nagapattinam had said she was 20 days short of completing five years when she joined the I Standard in 1992 and subsequently got exemption from the District Educational Officer for appearing in the Standard X and Plus-Two examinations.

But the Director of Teacher Training Education refused to give her exemption when she wanted to join a private teacher-training institute, she claimed.

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