KARIMNAGAR DIST R S M ASSOCN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ petition G.O.Ms. No. 802 Education dated 1-8-1978 enhancing the tuition fees to be collected by the Managements in all English medium unaided schools in the State is challenged as being discriminatory and offending Art.14 of the Constitution. The petitioners are : (1) Karimnagar District Recognised Schools Managements' Association and (2) The Andhra Pradesh Private Recognised Education Institutions represented by their Secretaries respectively.

(2.) It is stated in the affidavit that there are about 100 private upper primary and high schools in Karimnagar District having English, Telugu and Urdu mediums of instruction and they are run by the private managements and are unaided. The Managements have been experiencing financial difficulties because of low schedule fees to be collected from the students at Rs. 10, Rs. 12.50 ps. and Rs. 15/- per month for primary classes 1 to 5, upper primary classes 6 and 7 and secondary schools 8 to 10 respectively. However under the impugned G.O. the Government enhanced the rates at Rs. 10/- Rs. 15/- and Rs. 20/- for those classes respectively to all the English medium unaided schools in the State. Since this G.O. permitted the enhancement of fees only in respect of English medium schools the petitioners Association made number of representations to the Government to make the said G.O. applicable to other schools also. It is submitted there are about fifty schools with Telugu and Urdu mediums instruction in the Karimnagar district and hundreds of schools in other districts and all these schools are entitled to be permitted to collect the fees as per the revised G.O. dated 1-8-1978 and there is no valid basis for this discrimination in respect of non-English medium institution. It is also submitted however that the scales of pay of teachers employed in English medium and other medium schools are same. But this discrimination in respect of tuition fee to be collected from the students by the institutions other than the English medium is clearly discriminatory and offends Art.14 of the Constitution.

(3.) Rule Nisi was issued on 20-1-1983 and no counter was filed justifying the special treatment to the English medium schools. However it is urged that the G.O. was issued in the year 1978 and questioning the said G.O. at this distance of time is not permissible and the Government also is considering revising the scales of fees.