The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has directed the authorities to republish the results of 46,199 candidates who sat for the 2023 government primary assistant teacher recruitment examination in the Dhaka and Chattogram divisions, this time based on merit instead of the quota system.

The court also ordered the government to appoint 151 petitioners as assistant teachers within 60 days.

The verdict was delivered on Thursday by the Appellate Division led by the Chief Justice while disposing of the government's appeal against a previous High Court ruling.

Senior Advocate Tajul Islam, representing the petitioners, said the 2023 recruitment process had been conducted under the quota system then in force, with 84 percent of appointments allocated through quotas. A total of 151 candidates challenged the process before the High Court, arguing that following the Supreme Court's subsequent judgment on the quota system after the July movement, recruitment should be made primarily on merit, with 93 percent of positions filled on that basis.

The High Court had declared the recruitment process illegal and directed the authorities to appoint the 151 petitioners. The government later appealed the ruling.

According to Tajul Islam, the Appellate Division disposed of the appeal with three key directives.

First, the court ordered the government to appoint the 151 petitioners within 60 days.

Second, it directed the authorities to republish the results of all 46,199 candidates who participated in the recruitment examination in line with the Supreme Court's earlier judgment in Civil Petition No. 2516 of 2024, which struck down the previous quota system and restored merit-based recruitment.

Third, the court ruled that the appointments of 6,531 assistant teachers who were recruited while the case was pending would remain valid in the interest of justice.

The ruling effectively reaffirms the Supreme Court's earlier decision replacing the previous quota-based recruitment system with a merit-based process for the affected recruitment.