The Supreme Court refused to review its 2025 judgment directing in-service teachers recruited before the RTE Act, 2009, to obtain TET qualifications. The requirement applies to teachers with over five years of service left, who must clear TET within two years from September 1, 2025.
The Supreme Court declined to entertain a review of its 2025 decision. In that ruling, it directed in-service teacherswho were recruited before the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), and who have more than five years of service remaining until superannuation to obtain the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) within two years beginning from 1 September 2025.
A batch of review petitions was subsequently filed, all raising a common grievance that the judgment in Anjuman Ishaat e-Taleem Trust v. State of Maharashtra had incorrectly interpreted provisions of the RTE Act.
However, keeping in view the paramount need to ensure continuity in elementary education for children, a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan granted limited relief. It did so by extending the deadline for acquiring TET qualification again, by invoking its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution.
The court ordered,
“Appreciating that the TET examination must be conducted by the relevant authorities expeditiously as well as the time and resources required for the same are limited, we alter and extend the timeline granted in paragraph 217 of Anjuman (supra) for in-service teachers to acquire the TET qualification from 2 (two) to 3 (three) years, i.e., the qualification has to be obtained by 31st August, 2028 instead of 31st August, 2027, as originally directed,”
The court has also instructed States and the concerned authorities to conduct the TET periodically preferably twice every year—maintaining an interval of roughly six months between successive examinations. The purpose is to provide eligible teachers a reasonable opportunity to comply with the statutory requirement.
The court further clarified that no additional request for extension of time shall be considered.
The order was passed while the Supreme Court was hearing civil appeals challenging judgments/orders of two of the three chartered High Courts. Those appeals concerned, among other issues, the applicability of the TET to minority educational institutions and whether TET qualification is a mandatory condition for recruitment of teachers and for promotion of teachers already in service.
Notably, the Supreme Court had earlier referred the question of whether minority schools are exempt from the ambit of the RTE Act to the Chief Justice of India.
The bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan also expressed doubt regarding the correctness of the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Pramati Educational & Cultural Trust v. Union of India.
The bench observed that it was not clear whether Pramati Educational & Cultural Trust (supra) had been rightly decided insofar as it exempts the application of the RTE Act to minority schools, whether aided or unaided, falling under clause (1) of Article 30 of the Constitution.
Invoking its powers under Article 142, the Court had directed that, while the reference remained pending, teachers with less than five years’ service remaining as on date could continue in service until they attained the age of superannuation without qualifying the TET.
The bench had ordered,
“Insofar as in-service teachers recruited prior to enactment of the RTE Act and having more than 5 years to retire on superannuation are concerned, they shall be under an obligation to qualify the TET within 2 years from date in order to continue in service. If any of such teachers fail to qualify the TET within the time that we have allowed, they shall have to quit service. They may be compulsorily retired; and paid whatever terminal benefits they are entitled to”,