Supreme Court Issues Ruling: High School Teacher Recruitment Requires a Degree in Polymer Chemistry, Not Chemistry

The Supreme Court upheld a Kerala High Court decision that a B.Sc.(Polymer Chemistry) degree cannot be considered equivalent to a B.Sc.(Chemistry) degree for recruitment to the position of High School Teacher for Physical Science, as stated in a notification issued by the Kerala Public Service Commission in 2008. Disappointed, the appellant applied with the Kerala Administrative Tribunal, which denied her request in 2012. The same year, the High Court of Kerala rejected her appeal challenging the KAT decision.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court and KAT decisions. The panel, which included Justices Hima Kohli and Sandeep Mehta, citing the precedent set by Zahoor Ahmad Rather and Others v. Sheikh Imtiyaz Ahmad and Others (2019), which held that judicial review cannot broaden the scope of the stated credentials or choose whether they are equivalent to any other given qualification.“Therefore, the equivalence of a qualification cannot be assessed through judicial review. Whether a particular degree should or should not be considered equivalent is a matter for the State, as the recruiting authority, to decide" Justice Mehta wrote in his decision.

It was also based on the decision in Unnikrishnan CV and ors. V. Union of India 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 256, which stated that equivalency is a technical academic topic that cannot be
suggested or assumed. "Any decision of the academic body of the University relating to equivalence should be by specific order or resolution, duly published" according to the Court.
The Court rejected the appellant's argument of equivalency upon consideration of the Unnikrishnan CV decision.

"Given the settled principles of law flowing from the above precedents, we are of the firm view that the appellant herein was not qualified for the post advertised vide notification
dated 30th April 2008" the Court concluded.

Author: Aarya Kadam
News Writer