Government withdraws recruitment of 480 Graduate Primary Teachers

Following a High Court order, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) has withdrawn the recruitment of 480 Other Backward Classes (OBC) female Graduate Primary Teachers (GPT) related to the recruitment of 2022-23.

The Commissioner of Public Instruction’s order stated that the recruitment orders for which counselling has already been conducted, as well as recruitment orders of candidates that have already reported for duty, have been withdrawn until further court orders.

In 2022-23, the State government had issued a notification for the recruitment of 15,000 GPT to teach in government schools from classes 6 to 8. It had recruited 13,352 teachers through a competitive examination.

During this recruitment, OBC candidates were asked to submit caste and income certificates along with their fathers’ income certificates.

Many OBC female candidates were single while applying for the recruitment and had submitted their father’s caste and income certificates. However, after the competitive examination was over and the shortlisting for recruitment was completed, many OBC female candidates were married by the time the documents were verified.

The department, which raised an objection during the document verification, had made it mandatory for married OBC female candidates to submit their husbands’ caste and income certificates, and put on hold the counselling of a total of 480 candidates. The department completed the recruitment of the remaining candidates.

However, the OBC female candidates had approached the court against the DSEL’s move.

The Supreme Court, which delivered the final verdict on this case, ordered that the case be settled in the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT) and directed the tribunal to do so within six months. The KSAT, which gave its verdict on April 30, 2026, ruled in favour of the 480 candidates whose recruitment counselling was stayed.

Pursuant to this verdict, the department had announced the final selection list of 480 candidates on May 16, 2026.

However, some candidates again approached the High Court against this final selection list, after which the department withdrew the appointments, in line with the court ordering that the status quo be maintained.

“There is no clarity at the government level that OBC female candidates should submit income certificates of fathers or husbands. Regarding the GPT recruitment for 2022-23, 480 married OBC female candidates have lost time, money and service for the last three years due to no fault of theirs. The candidates demanded that the government take appropriate action to resolve this case.

Department officials said that further action will be taken as per the court order.