DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand high court (HC) has dismissed a batch of petitions challenging domicile-linked eligibility conditions for the recruitment of assistant teachers in govt primary schools, holding that the criteria prescribed in the recruitment advertisement “does not warrant judicial interference”.
A single bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari rejected three writ petitions filed by residents of Uttar Pradesh against a Nov 7, 2025 advertisement issued by the district education officer (primary), Almora. The advertisement required candidates to meet at least one of three conditions – being a domicile of Uttarakhand, having prior registration with a state employment exchange, or having completed Class 10 or 12 from a school in the state. The court noted that the petitioners fulfilled none of these requirements.
Counsel for the petitioners argued that certain conditions such as domicile or employment exchange registration were not part of the statutory rules notified on June 28, 2019. The state, however, maintained that the eligibility criteria specified in the advertisement were grounded in the same statutory rules and, therefore, could not be challenged.
The court observed that even if some conditions in the advertisement did not directly flow from the amended rules, the petitioners “failed to meet both the statutory requirements and the criteria specified in the advertisement”. It further held that eligibility conditions determined by the employer “cannot be termed unreasonable to justify interference under judicial review”.
“Every candidate for appointment to public services has to meet the eligibility conditions as determined by the employer. Since the petitioners do not satisfy any of the three conditions mentioned in the advertisement or the rules, this court finds no good ground to interfere in the matter. The writ petitions are therefore dismissed,” the HC said.
