STATE OF HARYANA AND ANOTHER Vs. ATMA NAND JAIN COLLEGE TRUST AND MANAGEMENT SOCIETY PUNJAB, AMBALA CITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been filed by the State of Haryana against an order dated 15.11.1983 passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court interfering with certain orders passed by the appellant-State with regard to the constitution of the Managing Committee of the respondent- College. The learned Single Judge had further directed that the maintenance and grant-in-aid to the respondent-College be released and disbursed by the State without insisting upon compliance with the order(s) impugned in the writ petition.

(2.) That the respondent-College is a minority institution is not disputed before the Court. The agreement between the parties on the said issue severely truncates the dimensions of the conflict between the parties in view of the law that has crystalized over the years in respect of minority institutions and the extent of governmental control over such institutions. The decisions of the Apex Court lay down the law which in substance is that there can be no governmental control over the affairs of a minority institution established under Article 30 of the Constitution. It will not be necessary to enter into a detailed narration of the various decisions of the Apex Court. However, by way of illustration, the decision in Secy, Malankara Syrian Catholic College v. T.Jose and others, 2007 1 SCC 386 may be usefully referred to. In the said decision, the Apex Court had occasion to consider several other decisions on the point including the decision in T.M.A.Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka, 2003 2 SCT 385 . On an exhaustive consideration of the several cases referred to in the judgment, including the judgment in T.M.A.Pai Foundation's case , the Apex Court in para 19 of the judgment had culled out the following general principles relating to administration of minority educational institutions :-

(3.) In the present case, the main features of the directions issued by the State Government by its memo. dated 28.3.1979 (Annexure P-2) contained in Sr.No. (i) to (ix) as summarised by the learned Single Judge in the judgment under challenge, the College has no objection in implementing the directions contained against Sr.Nos. (vii), (viii) and (ix) inasmuch as the same are beneficial to its employees. The aforesaid three directions are being extracted below for the purpose of clarity :-