REV SR MARGARET MARY CORRESPONDENT SACRED HEART HIGH SCHOOL KADIAPATTANAM KANYAKUMARI DISTRICT Vs. GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Congregation of Nuns of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, kanyakumari District, it is said is engaged in religious and social work and has established educational institutions in several places in Tamil Nadu and pondicherry. Schools run by the said Congregation had been recognised as minority institutions entitled to the protection guaranteed under Art. 30 (l) of the Constitution of India, viz. the fundamental right to religious minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Sacred Heart Primary School , kadiapattanam, situate within the educational district of Thuckalay, was established by the said Congregation in 1928 and was granted affiliation by the director of Public Instructions in the same year. THE said school is a full fledged primary school for girls having a strength of 639 students as on 31. 7. 1985. THE teacher-pupil ratio laid down in g. O. Ms. No. 250, Education Department, dated 29. 2. 1964 permits the appointment of one teacher for the first 35 students and two teachers for a total of 60 students and one additional teacher for every 20 more students. THE total strength of 639 students requires the appointment of 19 teachers, 19 teachers having the requisite qualifications in fact have been appointed to man the school, but nonetheless grant-in-aid in respect of six teachers are yet to be released, although there is no impediment for payment of the teaching grant.

(2.) THE said Congregation was also running a middle school, sacred Heart Middle School, Kadiapat-tanam which was upgraded into a High school during 1982-83. Standard IX had been opened on 16. 6. 1982 and Standard X on 20. 6. 1983. THE third respondent in W. P. No. 5702 of 1986, Joint Director of school Education (Secondary), Madras-6, in his proceedings dated 31. 10. 1983 accorded temporary recognition without aid from the date of opening of the new standards till 31. 5. 1984. As on 1. 8. 1985, the strength of the school was 595. THE appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff having the requisite qualifications had been made as per the rules. Even though six additional teachers in the middle school, three additional school assistants, two additional special teachers and six non-teaching staff in the High School have been working, in anticipation of allotment of posts for the past two years or more, the respondents have failed and neglected to grant aid in respect of them.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner would press the following contentions into service: (i) The first respondent/state is under a positive obligation to give equal treatment in the matter of aid to all educational institutions, including those of the minorities, religious or linguistic, like the petitioner, and the refusal to release the grants in aid to the petitioner merely on the ground that the petitioner Institution is a minority institution, is nothing but sheer practice of hostile discrimination, which is not permissible on the face of Art. 30 of the Constitution of India. (ii) Refusal to release the grants-in-aid on the ground that no previous permission had been obtained by the petitioner for the upgrading of the Middle School into High School is altogether untenable, in as much as no previous permission is required for any minority institution to establish and administer any private school as per the provision of Sec. 9 of the Tamil Nadu recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 1973 (for short, the act )and what is required after the establishment of such an institution is to send to the competent authority, under Sec. 10, a statement containing particulars specified in Sec. 5 (2) (c) of the Act within a period of three months from the date of opening of the school as prescribed under Rule 8 (2) of the Rules framed under the Act.