Hyderabad: Hyderabad High Court on Monday directed Telangana government to conduct Language Pandit Course Entrance Test (LPCET) before March 15, 2018.
While dismissing an appeal by the state government, a division Bench comprising Acting Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi said that the government was making efforts to increase the term of the course from nine months to two years to improve the standards of the Language Pandit Course. As per the existing rules, the term of the course is nine months.
In October 2016, while declaring inaction of the Directorate of School Education authorities of Telangana state in conducting LPCET as illegal, a single judge had directed the authorities concerned to conduct LPCET for Telugu, Hindi and Urdu within six weeks.
Aggrieved by the order, the principle secretary of School Education and the director of School Education had moved an appeal seeking suspension of the single judge’s order.
Counsel for the government had submitted that the state government had written to the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) seeking it to enhance the term of the course to two years as the existing term was not sufficient to train the language pandits to improve the standards of language education.
While pointing out that as of now, there will be no changes in the norms of the NCTE, the Bench said that the authorities will have to follow the existing rules and laws as long as there is no change in them.
Reminding that the NCTE had granted approval for the colleges for a nine-months’ course, the Bench made it clear that the authorities have no right to withhold the test for years together.
When the Bench prepared to dismiss the appeal, the counsel urged the Bench to grant some time to make arrangements to hold the test. While granting time till March 15, the Bench dismissed the appeal.
