Hyderabad: The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has been ordered by the high court to clarify its stance on a petition accusing it and Telangana of disregarding sports qualifications when selecting physical education teachers (PETs).

A four-week deadline has been set by a bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy for the state to respond to the matter. The panel was hearing a slew of petitions filed by P Ramesh Kumar and many others, who argued that using intermediate merit as the sole basis for hiring PETs was harmful to the purpose of physical education and that candidates' athletic achievements were important.

According to the petitioners' lawyer, S Rahul Reddy, the authorities issued a notification in October 2017 inviting applications for PET recruitment across the state. A few days before the announcement, the state established regulations stating that anyone who received 50% or above in the Intermediate course was allowed to apply. Despite the fact that NCTE regulations specify as much, people who have credentials for participation in college, state, and national-level sporting competitions are given considerable leeway.

The state has the authority to enforce stricter requirements than those set by NCTE, but it cannot disregard sports entirely, especially in the case of PETs. Furthermore, the state's marks relaxation for SC, ST, and BC applicants was extended to all other teacher categories, but not to PET candidates, Rahul said.

The high court had already voiced grave concerns over state authorities' disregard for the requirements of their own notification and had made the whole recruiting procedure and its result subject to the outcome of these lawsuits.

The bench was concerned about NCTE's hide-and-seek attitude in not filing its reply.