ABRAHAM VADAKKANCHERRY Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Director of Public Instruction published a "preliminary list" of areas where new High Schools were proposed to be opened during the year 1982-83: and Pallipurathussery (Vaikom) was one of the areas/localities specified. The proposal was to sanction the opening of a Girls' High School. The Manager of a Girls' High School at Vaikom objected, and after considering all objections, Government decided to drop the proposal. In the "final list" approved by the Government, therefore, Pallipurathussery did not find a place. Aggrieved by this decision, the Manager of a Convent filed a petition for reviewing the final list. Government heard the matter and passed orders directing inclusion of the area in the final list. The convenors of a Pourasamithi at Pallipurathussery thereupon filed OP. No. 8873/83 challenging the said order, and a learned Judge dismissed the OP. on the ground that the petitioners had no real interest in the matter, that they had suffered no injury and that having failed to object to the preliminary list at the initial stage, they were not entitled to question the final list as reviewed, at a later stage. This is what the learned Judge said:

(2.) This Writ Appeal, by the Paura Samithi convenors, is directed against the aforesaid judgment.

(3.) No question of locus standi in the matter of seeking relief under Art.226 of the Constitution had arisen in Mohd. Ibrahim Khan's case (AIR 1980 SC 517), relied on by the learned Judge. The case had arisen under the Madhya Pradesh Cinemas (Regulation) Act, 1952 and the rules framed thereunder, and the facts were these. One Prem Narayan applied for a cinema licence, in December, 1975. There were three distinct stages in the licensing procedure under the Act and the rules:-