LAWS(KER)-2009-4-1

BHARATHIYA VIDHYABHAVAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

Decided On April 06, 2009
BHARATHIYA VIDHYABHAVAN Appellant
V/S
STATE OF KERALA Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners in these Writ Petitions have applied for No Objection Certificates (N. O. C.) from the Kerala Government for establishing C. B. S. E. or I. C. S. E. schools. As per the Affiliation Bye-laws of C. B. S. E. and I. C. S. E. , N. O. C. from the State government is one of the mandatory requirements for grant of affiliation. Therefore, the writ petitioners moved the Government, seeking NOC. . by filing appropriate applications. Their applications are either pending or have been rejected. Those applications were dealt with by the Government as per Government Order, G. O. (MS)No. 18/88/g. Edn dated 12. 1. 1988. Earlier, this Court held that cl. (xii) of the said government Order is arbitrary and unworkable. So, the Government issued G. O. (MS)No. 204/08/g. Edn. dated 15. 12. 2008, deleting cl. (xii) of G. O. (MS) No. 18/88/g. Edn. dated 12. 1. 1988 and also incorporating certain new provisions in the said Government Order dated 12. 1. 1988. Still later, the words 'recognised by the Government', in the opening sentence of paragraph 3 of the Government Order dated 15. 12. 2008 was substituted by the word 'established', as per G. O. (MS) No. 3/09/g. Edn. dated 5. 1. 2009. Feeling aggrieved by the last two Government Orders mentioned above, these Writ Petitions are filed. Since common questions arise for consideration in these Writ Petitions, they are heard and disposed of together by this common judgment.

(2.) WE will now briefly refer to the facts of the case. W. P. (C) No. 34912 of 2007 this case is treated as the main case, for the purpose of referring to the exhibits. The petitioner in this Writ Petition is a Trust. It moved the Government by submitting ext. P1, which is a copy of the application for affiliation, along with a covering letter, seeking N. O. C. It wanted to establish Nirmala Public School at Karimannoor, thodupuzha. The proposal is to run a Higher Secondary School with Standards 1 to 12. Ext. P2 is G. O. (MS) No. 18/88/g. Edn. dated 12. 1. 1988, containing the norms formulated by the Government for grant of N. O. C. for affiliation.

(3.) THE petitioner's application was enquired into by the District Educational Officer and the said officer submitted Ext. P3 report before the D. P. I. on 24. 4. 2006, recommending grant of N. O. C. The Director of Public Instruction, by Ext. P3 (a) dated 5. 6. 2006, also favoured the grant of N. O. C. to the writ petitioner. While so, the government returned the application as per Ext. P4 dated 26. 10. 2006, directing the writ petitioner to submit the application as per the new guidelines to be framed by it. Ext. P4 was challenged before this Court by filing Writ Petition (C) No. 8120 of 2007. While so, new guidelines for grant of N. O. C. were issued by the Government, as per g. O. (P)No. 107/07/g. Edn. dated 13. 6. 2007, which is produced as Ext. P5 in this Writ petition. The petitioner amended the Writ Petition and challenged the objectionable clause in Ext. P5. The said Writ Petition was allowed by Ext. P6 judgment. Para. 2 of Ext. P5 dealing with recognition of unaided schools and grant of N. O. C. to C. B. S. E. and I. C. S. E. schools was quashed by this Court.