Ranchi, Jun 30 (PTI) The Jharkhand High Court on Monday expressed annoyance at the tardy pace of appointment of teachers by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC).

Hearing a PIL filed by economist and social activist Jean Dreze, a division bench comprising Chief Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Rajesh Shankar observed that the JSSC did not comply with the directions of the court.

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The bench directed the JSSC to inform the court as to when appointment letters to the selected candidates will be handed over.

The Commission had filed an affidavit informing the court about the progress made in the appointment procedure of teachers in different streams.

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However, from the details mentioned in the affidavit, the court found that the Commission failed to keep up the pace it had vouched earlier.

Out of 6,000 candidates for appointment as teachers for Mathematics and Science subjects, only 2,734 candidates have been shortlisted.

There are 5,008 vacant posts for teachers which are due to be filled.

The remaining candidates failed to secure the minimum qualifying marks and are therefore eligible for appointment, the affidavit said.

In the Social Science stream, the verification process of 5,304 candidates who have been shortlisted for the 5002 vacancies is far from completion.

The court directed the JSSC to prepare an up-to-date list and status of work done towards appointment of candidates.

The matter will be heard again on July 2.

In his petition, Jean Dreze, a Belgian-born social activist, claimed that Jharkhand is ranked as one of the worst states in terms of the availability of school teachers.

In a study conducted by the Unified District Information System Education (UDISE), the state is said to have only one school teacher for 30 per cent of government schools.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)