MOUNT COLUMBUS SCHOOL Vs. DIRECTORATE OF EDUCATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a private unaided recognised senior secondary school.

(2.) Sec. 20(1) of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 ("the DSE Act') empowers the administrator to, in the event of his being satisfied that the Managing Committee of a school has neglected to perform any of the duties imposed on it by or under the DSE Act or any Rule made thereunder and that it is expedient in the interests of school education to take over the management of the said school, to do so, for a period of three years. However, the sub-sec. requires the administrator to, before doing so, provide a reasonable opportunity to the school to show cause against the proposed action of taking over the management of the school.

(3.) In Managing Committee, Vidhya Bharti Girls School v. Directorate of Education 198 (2013) DLT 355 (DB), a Division Bench of this Court held that the power to take over the management of a school vested only in the Hon'ble Lieutenant Governor as the administrator, and did not vest in the Director of Education (DOE).