STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs. K SHYAM SUNDER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals have been preferred against the judgment and order dated 18.7.2011 of the High Court of Judicature at Madras in Writ Petition Nos.12882, 12890, 13019, 13037, 13038, 13227, 13293, 13296, 13345, 13381, 13390, 13547 of 2011 and W.P.(M.D.) No.6143/2011 whereby the High Court has struck down Section 3 of The Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education (Amendment) Act, 2011 (hereinafter called the Amendment Act 2011) and issued directions to the State Authorities to implement the provisions of The Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010 (hereinafter called the Act 2010), i.e. to implement the common syllabus, distribute the textbooks printed under the uniform system of education and commence the classes on or before 22.7.2011. The Contempt Petitions have been filed for non-implementing the directions given by this Court vide order dated 14.6.2011.

(2.) FACTS:

(3.) Shri P.P. Rao, Shri C.A. Sundaram, Dr. Rajeev Dhavan, Dr. Abhishek M. Singhvi, Sr. Advocates, Shri A. Navaneetha Krishnan, learned Advocate General and Shri Guru Krishna Kumar, learned Additional Advocate General for the State of Tamil Nadu, appearing for the appellants, have submitted that the High Court vide its earlier judgment dated 30.4.2010 had issued directions to the State Government to amend the Act 2010 as certain provisions thereof had to be brought in conformity with the Act 2009 and the State had to constitute the Board and designate the Academic Authority and the State Advisory Council. In view thereof, it was necessary to bring the Amendment Act 2011. Thus, basically it was in consonance and in conformity with the judgment dated 30.4.2010 which has duly been approved by this Court. The High Court in its earlier judgment itself gave liberty to the State to implement the common syllabus and distribute text books under the Act 2010 from academic year 2011-12 or with any future date after the norms were made known by the State Authorities so far as the students of Standards II to V and VII to X are concerned. Therefore, in view of the same, the High Court committed an error holding that the Amendment Act 2011 tantamounts to repealing the Act 2010. The High Court itself has accepted the settled legal proposition that the question of malafide or colourable exercise of power cannot be alleged against the legislature, but still it recorded the finding that the Amendment Act 2011 was a product of arbitrary exercise of power. The authorities had to ensure compliance with the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (hereinafter called NCF 2005) prepared by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (hereinafter called NCERT), which had laid down a large number of guidelines for preparing the syllabus and curriculum for the children. The Government of India issued Notification dated 31.3.2010, published in the Official Gazette of India on 5.4.2010, recognizing the NCERT as the Academic Authority to lay down the curriculum and evaluation procedure for elementary education and to develop a framework on national curriculum. In consequence thereof, a Government Order dated 31.5.2010 was also issued by the Ministry of Human Resources Development to the effect that in view of the statutory provisions of the Act 2009, which provided that the Central Government shall develop a framework on national curriculum with the help of Academic Authority specified under Section 29 thereof, the NCF 2005 would be the NCF till such time as the Central Government requires to develop a new framework. After the order of this Court dated 14.6.2011, the Expert Committee appointed by the State had gone through the syllabus and the text books already printed and after having various meetings, came to the conclusion that the same required thorough revision and therefore, submitted a report that it was not possible to implement the Act 2010 in the academic year 2011-12. The Advocate General of Tamil Nadu had given assurance to the High Court that under all circumstances the Act 2010 will be implemented in the next academic year, i.e. 2012-13. However, the Court did not consider the same at all. It falls within the exclusive domain of the legislature/ Government as to from which date it would enforce a Statute. The court cannot even issue a mandamus to the legislature to bring a particular Act into force. Therefore, the question of striking down the Amendment Act 2011 on the ground that implementation of the Act 2010 to be deferred indefinitely is not in accordance with the settled legal propositions. The State had to appoint various authorities and notify the same as required under various statutes. Once the provision stands amended and the amending provisions are struck down by the Court, the obliterated statutory provisions would not revive automatically unless the provisions of the amending statutes is held to be invalid for want of legislative competence. The appeals deserve to be allowed and the judgment and order of the High Court impugned are liable to be set aside.