ALL MANIPUR STUDENTS UNION Vs. STATE OF MANIPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr.Kh.Mani, learned counsel for the petitioners as well as Mr. Th.Ibohal, learned Advocate General, Manipur for the State respondents.

(2.) The present Public Interest Litigation(PIL) has been filed challenging the order dated 29.6.2015 issued by the Joint Secretary (Education (S), Govt. of Manipur (Annexure - A/3) by which the Govt. of Manipur abolished the Bengali Primary School (Class I -V), Babupara and Bengali High School (Class VI -X) to facilitate the establishment of Ramkrishna Mission Centre in Imphal and also for quashing the Memorandum of Agreement dated 27th August, 2015 signed between the Govt. of Manipur and the Ramkrishna Mission to take possession of the school campus. The present petition has been filed by the All Manipur Students' Union (AMSU) through its Secretary General as the petitioner No.1 and the petitioner No.2 who is the Secretary General of the said Union. The main ground raised in the present PIL is that the Bengali School, Babupara is an old institution established in the year 1903 and has been in existence for more than 100 years and enjoys a unique position in the State. It has been pleaded that at present there are 103 students in the said school; 24 in Class -VI, 28 in Class -VII, 13 in Class -VIII, 22 in Class -IX and 16 in Class -X and there are a number of teachers employed in the said school. It has been contended that this school has been abolished in the middle of academic session which is against the interest of the students and there is no concrete policy laying down the norms and criteria for abolishing a government school. The petitioners have mentioned in para No.10 of the petition that while establishment of Ramkrishna Mission School is praiseworthy, abolishing a school in the midst of academic session is not correct because of which there was demand to revoke the said order. It has been also stated in Para No.11 also that the matter was raised in the Manipur Legislative Assembly on 9.7.2015 and the State Education Minister had stated that the reason for abolishing the said school is for establishment of Ramkrishna Mission school in order to have a better school and the people should not take it as an abolition of a school, rather for providing a better school and the school would start its session with intake capacity of about 500 students.

(3.) It has been stated that the petitioners submitted a representation on 21.7.2015 addressed to the Prime Minister of India stating that while the AMSU welcomes the establishment of Ramkrishna Mission Centre in the State of Manipur, they are against the move of the Government to abolish the century old Bengali High School. It has been stated that since the students belong to poor families, they can ill afford to pay higher fees of the private schools. It has been also stated that other representations have been submitted to the Governor of Manipur as well as to the Chief Minister of Manipur on 22.7.2015. The petitioners have submitted that subsequently they have learnt that a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the State of Manipur and Ramkrishna Mission on 27.8.2015 for establishment of a primary school with the objective of upgrading in following years, a school of languages (English, Burmese, Chinese and Japanese), computer training centre, mobile computer and science laboratories, mobile language lessons and value education and the Ramkrishna Mission have taken possession of the said school and started its activities. The petitioners contend that with abolition of the said Bengali High School, students studying there would be prejudicially affected.