PR FRANCIS FERNANDEZ Vs. D E O ERNAKULAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These five Original Petitions raise questions relating to the conflict between the power of the State to regulate the service conditions of teachers of aided schools and the right claimed by managements belonging to minority communities to resist all such regulatory provisions as affecting their fundamental rights under Art.30(1) of the Constitution of India.

(2.) OP No. 665 of 1988 and OP No. 2122 of 1987 are filed by the power of attorney holder on behalf of the Bishop of Cochin, who is a Corporate Educational Agency in respect of 26 Schools spread over various educational districts. OP No. 2712 of 1988 is filed by a junior teacher, whom the corporate educational agency appointed as Headmaster in one of the Schools St. Mary's Lower Primary School, Chellanam against orders refusing to approve the appointment. OP 1917 of 1988 is filed by the Manager of St. Antony's High School, Valiyathura in Trivandrum. OP No. 2575 of 1988 is filed by another priest claiming to represent the protection council of Roman Catholic Schools. The challenge in all these Original Petitions is against orders of the controlling, appellate and revisional authorities refusing to approve appointments of junior teachers as Headmasters of aided schools conducted by corporate educational agencies of Christian minority communities.

(3.) Factual details may not be very material, because it is admitted in all the Original Petitions, that the managements did not appoint senior teachers as Headmasters in accordance with the generality of the provisions contained in R.44 of Chap.14A of the Kerala Educational Rules. I need therefore advert only to the basic facts involved in these petitions.