The Rajasthan High Court has ruled that the three-year Bachelor of Physical Education (BPE) degree is equivalent to the one-year Bachelor of Physical Education (B.P.Ed) qualification and that candidates holding a BPE degree are fully eligible for appointment as Physical Training Instructor (PTI) Grade III.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Maneesh Sharma clarified that the term “BPE” merely represents a three-year course structure and cannot be distinguished from “B.P.Ed” in any substantive manner. The Court stressed that a longer-duration degree cannot be treated as inferior to a shorter, one-year programme.

The Court was dealing with a batch of intra-court appeals filed by BPE-qualified candidates who were denied consideration in the PTI recruitment process, which prescribed B.P.Ed as the minimum educational requirement.

The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), which was made a party in the matter, informed the Court that the BPE degree is duly recognised by NCTE and is a professional teaching qualification that makes a candidate eligible for PTI posts.

Based on this endorsement, the Bench held that BPE holders cannot be excluded merely because the recruitment authority treated “BPE” and “B.P.Ed” as distinct qualifications. Such differentiation, the Court said, was artificial, arbitrary and aimed at unfairly excluding more qualified candidates.

Holding the rejection to be untenable, the Court observed:
“A candidate with a three-year Bachelor of Physical Education degree is eligible for PTI Grade-III. Treating the short form ‘BPE’ as different from ‘B.P.Ed’ is a misnomer and results in depriving meritorious candidates of appointment.”

The appeals were accordingly allowed, and the authorities were directed to consider the appellants’ candidature on merits.

Title: Bimla Kumari v. State of Rajasthan & Ors. (with connected petitions)