JANARDHANAN NAIR Vs. VELAYUDHAN PILLAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) EVEN though as many as 8 questions of law are formulated in the memorandum of grounds, counsel for the 1st defendant-appellant has urged only one point relating to the maintainability of the suit for the reason of the bar under S. 92 CPC. The suit is for a declaration that the 1st defendant is only the Manager of the plaint school in his capacity as the Secretary of the School Committee and not in his individual capacity and also to restrain him from treating the school as his own and effecting transfers of staff from the plaint L. P. School to the High School ottasekharamangalam and vice versa. Both the courts below have concurrently found that the plaint school, namely, the L. P. School, Ottasekharamangalam was established by the general public of the locality and the 1st defendant is only the Manager in his capacity as the Secretary of the School Committee, that bad been acting on behalf of the public of the locality. This finding is based on the documentary evidence Exts. Al to A6, A9 and A10 produced and proved on behalf of the plaintiffs.

(2.) THE mere fact that the 1st defendant was later allowed to establish a separate high school and the U. P. section subsequently added to the L. P. school was allowed to be amalgamated with the High School does not in any way make the 1st defendant the educational agency of the plaint L. P. school. None of the documents produced by the 1st defendant would indicate that he was the educational agency in regard to the L. P. school. THEre is no dispute that the Ist defendant is the manager and has been approved as such by the Education Department. THE Manager is different from the educational agency. It is the educational agency that will be permitted to establish aided schools and it is the educational agency that is empowered to appoint the Manager of an aided school subject to the approval of the educational officer concerned. Sub-s. (2) of S. 7. of the Kerala education Act defines the "educational agency" to mean any person or body of persons permitted to establish and maintain any private school under the Act. Under sub-s. (4) of S. 3 all existing schools shall be deemed to have been established in accordance with the Act. S. 7 empowers the educational agency to appoint the manager of an aided school under the Art subject to the approval of the concerned educational officer. R. 1 of Chap. 3 of the KER classifies educational institutions as those under individual educational agency and those under Corporate Educational agency. A school established by the general public of a locality will fall under the latter class of institutions viz. those under Corporate Educational agency. Ext. A10 document, under which the land on which the school building is constructed is acquired, itself shows that the acquisition was in the name of the 1st defendant as the Secretary of the School Committee. Exts. A1 to A6 communications between the Department and the educational agency would also prove beyond any shadow of doubt that the educational agency in respect of the L. P. school involved in the suit is the public of the locality and a local committee had been acting on its behalf.