SELVARAJ Vs. SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff in O.S. No. 546 of 1977 on the file of District Munsif's Court, Madurai, has preferred this Second Appeal against the reversing judgment of the Lower Appellate Court in A. S. No. 52 of 1981, dismissing the suit.

(2.) The suit is against the Educational Authorities of the Government and is for declaration that the plaintiff's school is a minority school within the meaning of Article 30 of the Constitution of India and for permanent injunction restraining the defendants-respondents from enforcing the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 1973 and its Rules against the plaintiff's School. The trial Court, though did not grant the injunction relief prayed for, granted the declaration relief prayed for. But the Lower Appellate Court, in the appeal preferred by the defendants, dismissed the suit in entirety.

(3.) The only ground on which the Lower Appellate Court did not grant the declaration prayed for is that the plaintiff is only a single Christian individual running the school in question, the school also having been founded only by a single Chritian Woman, Packiammal. Relying on the following passage in Rajershi Memorial Basic Training School v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 Kerala 87, viz., "The mere fact that the school was founded by a person belonging to a particular religious persuasion is not at all conclusive on this matter. The institution must be shown to be one established and administered by or on behalf of the particular minority community", the Lower Appellate Court appears to have held that unless a group of minority community people join together and found and administer a school, the said school cannot be termed a minority school. It also observes thus (para 4) :-