THE MANAGER Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The afore captioned Writ Appeals arise out of the impugned common judgment dtd. 27/7/2022, rendered by the learned Single Judge, disposing of WP(C) No.22515/2022 and a batch of connected writ petitions (Civil).

(2.) The afore writ petitions have been filed by the Managers of various aided Higher Secondary Schools, impugning the Government Order, G.O.(MS) No.121/2022/G.Edn. dtd. 7/7/2022, issued by the competent authority of the State Government in the General Education Department and the prospectus issued by the Directorate concerned, with the approval of the Government for regulating admission to plus one course (Higher Secondary), for the academic year, 2022-23, to the extent it concerns private aided Higher Secondary Schools. The hitherto norm of allotting 30% of the total seats in plus two courses in aided Higher Secondary Schools, run by Managements other than minorities and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC)/Other Backward Classes (OBC Communities), upto last year has been altered by ordering that the said Management Quota will be only 20% of the total seats and 10% seats will be allotted to students of the community to which the management belongs, to be allotted strictly on the basis of inter se merit of such eligible students. Further, it was also ordered therein that if no community is declared by the Management for the above purpose, then the 10% community quota seats shall be converted as general merit seats and the same will be filled up through the Central Allotment Process (CAP).

(3.) Various writ petitioner managements have filed the afore writ appeals, to the extent that they are aggrieved by the rejection of their second plea for conversion of 10% community quota seats as management quota seats and with the plea that those managements should be allowed to fill up the said 10% quota seats as management quota seats, apart from the regular 20% management quota seats already allotted to them and thus, they should be given the right to fill up 30% of the total seats as management quota seats, as was allowed from 2005 onwards. Whereas, the State and the Departmental authorities concerned have filed Writ Appeals, as above, challenging the finding of the learned Single Judge, regarding the invalidity of setting apart of the 10% community quota seats to managements other than minorities and backward classes, contending that the differentiation of classification for the said 10% quota seats is not merely on the basis of community, based on religion, caste etc, but also on the fact that the community concerned would have endeavored to establish those schools and that therefore, it is in recognition of that aspect that the said 10% quota seats have now been set up with a rider that community quota seats should be filled up by the respective managements, strictly on the basis of merit of the eligible applicants.