High Court Gives Madhya Pradesh 60 Days to Decide TET Exemption Pleas as Teacher Promotions Await

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the competent authority to decide within 60 days the representations of teachers appointed before 3 September 2001 who are seeking exemption from the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) for promotion, according to the Free Press Journal. Justice Vivek Kumar Singh passed the order on 12 October on a petition filed by Anil Kumar Tomar and others against the state government.

The petitioners were appointed as Shiksha Karmis in Grade II and Grade III between 1997 and 1999. They sought exemption from the TET and protection against being denied eligibility for promotion to Primary Teacher and Middle Teacher posts for not clearing it. Their counsel, Jitendra Arya, told the court that the representations were pending and asked for disposal within a fixed period. The petitioners argue that their appointment dates and years of service should be considered when deciding whether the TET applies to their promotions.

The court did not grant the exemption and did not rule on the merits of the demand. The direction is limited to deciding the representations, so the final outcome on exemption and promotion eligibility remains pending. Upendra Kaushal, state president of the Government Teachers’ Organisation, urged the government to settle the concerns of long-serving teachers through a time-bound decision.

The order comes against a wider backdrop. The Free Press Journal reported in May that the Supreme Court extended the deadline for in-service teachers in non-minority schools to qualify in the TET to 31 August 2028 and again rejected pleas to exempt teachers appointed before 2009. The newspaper said that in an earlier ruling, on 1 September 2025, the court held that teachers with more than five years of service left must clear the test, while those with less than five years left were exempted from the mandatory requirement but still need it for promotions.

Teacher organisations have also protested the rules. In August, the newspaper reported that no in-service teacher had filled the state TET application form a week after it opened, and that organisations had called for a boycott. It said the state government has sought relief for about 70,000 teachers appointed between 2005 and 2009, arguing that the 2005 and 2008 eligibility exams should count as TET, and that School Education Minister Uday Pratap Singh said the government would decide their eligibility after the Supreme Court’s verdict.

Promotions are also in focus. According to a separate report, the Directorate of Public Instruction has told officials to verify, by 25 October, the confidential reports, service records and departmental inquiry details of 6,500 higher secondary teachers, checking reports for 2018 to 2025 against the final seniority list issued on 1 April 2025. Promotions against nearly 32,000 posts are pending, and the exercise is linked to a TET that is expected in December. The report said teachers’ organisations are dissatisfied with the delay.