Govt defends decision on domicile policy

PATNA: Justifying the decision to scrap the domicile policy for teachers’ recruitment in the state government schools, chief secretary Amir Shubhani on Monday said such policy in appointments was unconstitutional as it violated Article 16 of the Constitution.
The Nitish Kumar government had, on June 27, withdrawn the domicile policy, drawing flak from the opposition BJP as well as Left parties supporting the state government.
Shubhani told newsmen that the domicile policy for teachers’ appointment does not exist in other states, including neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. “Subclause 2 of Article 16 of the Constitution clearly provides that no candidate can be disqualified from any government job on the basis of place or residence. Hence, continuing with the domicile policy in teachers’ recruitment, as originally advertised by the BPSC, was illegal. Therefore, the 2023 teachers’ recruitment regulations had to be amended in order to make it legally valid,” Shubhani said.
State education department’s additional chief secretary K K Pathak and director of primary education, Pankaj Kumar, were also present at the presser with Shubhani.
Shubhani further said that earlier, the BPSC had appointed teachers in 1994, 1999 and 2000 without any domicile policy. Even in 2012, when there was no domicile policy, only 3413 candidates from outside the state were appointed as teachers in Bihar against the total vacancies of 1.68 lakh. “Thus, it can be easily inferred that only negligible number of candidates from outside are appointed as teachers in Bihar. He said even in the present recruitments being made by the BPSC following the removal of domicile policy, only a few applicants from outside the state would be able to get jobs,” he said.
He further clarified that 50% of the posts advertised would be reserved for the candidates from the state only. He said the appointment of teachers through BPSC would be fair and go a long way in improving the standards of school education in the state.
Pathak said the states which made provisions for domicile had to lose cases in the high courts and the Supreme Court. The Jharkhand government has also lost the case on the domicile issue in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, education minister Chandrashekhar also asserted on Monday that very few candidates from outside Bihar would be able to get the teachers’ job in Bihar. He claimed that at least 1.60 lakh of the total 1.75 lakh posts would be filled by the applicants from the state only.
It may be mentioned that ever since the state cabinet decided to remove the domicile policy in recruitment of teachers, the teacher aspirants are on a war path. They are taking out processions and staging demonstrations for immediate restoration of the domicile policy.