CHOUDHARY JANKI PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these writ applications relate to a High School in Gaya town and the main questions arising for decision are common and they, therefore, were heard together and are disposed of by this common judgment. CW.J.C, 1704 of 1970 has been filed for quashing an order passed by the Secretary, Board of Secondary Education, as contained in Annexure '2' to the writ application, whereby the Secretary has said that the Model High English School, Gaya, is fit to be recognised as an institution established by minority based on religion. C.W.J.C. 1409 of 1971 has been filed with a prayer to quash the order passed by respondent No. 1 dated 26th August. 1971 constituting an ad hoc committee consisting of respondents 3 to 5 in respect of the management of the said school as contained in Annexure '4' to the writ application.

(2.) The petitioners' case is that the said school was established in 1915 by the members of the Theosophical Society (hereinafter to be referred to as 'the Society') and in accordance with the Memorandum of Association, a true copy whereof is annexed to C.W.J.C. 1409 of 1971 as Annexure '1', a Board of Trustees has been functioning as Governing Body of the school, and the Trustees, Under the provisions of the Memorandum of Association, elect the office bearers and other members of the Managing Committee of the school. The petitioners further claim that the members of the Society profess a system of religion on the notion that knowledge of divine things is gained by ecstasy, direct intuition or special individual intercourse with God and superior things, and form a minority based on religion in Bihar. The school, as claimed to have been founded by the Society, is accordingly protected by Article 30 of the Constitution of India and the order contained in Annexure '4' to C.W.J.C. 1409 of 1971, passed under the provisions of the Bihar High Schools (Constitution, Powers and Functions of the Managing Committee) Rules, 1964 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules') is illegal and ultra vires. The petitioners alternatively have submitted that even if the above plea on behalf of the petitioners be not accepted, the order (Annexure 4) is still illegal because the supersession of the existing Managing Committee was permissible only under the provisions of Section 5 of the Bihar High Schools (Control and Regulation of Administration) Act, 1960 (hereinafter to be referred to as 'the Act') and the essential conditions in the said section have not been fulfilled. All the three petitioners of C.W.J.C. 1409 of 1971 claim to be the members of the Model High English School Society and have filed the writ application in that capacity.

(3.) Two persons, namely, Harihar Prasad Singh and Jaimangal Singh claiming respectively Secretary and Member of the Board of Trustees filed an application in C.W.J.C. 1409 of 1971 for being added as respondents and they also filed counter-affidavits challenging the claim made in the writ applications. No orders were passed on this application and when the case was taken up for hearing, we permitted the intervenors to oppose the writ application. There was no opposition on behalf of the petitioners to their being added as party respondents to this writ case. I allow their prayer for being added as respondents in the writ case. They will be formally added as respondents 6 and 7 in the writ application. They have mainly asserted that the school was not established by the Society and that the Society is not a religious minority for the purpose of Article 30 of the Constitution. They have also submitted that the last committee was itself an Ad Hoc Committee framed under Rule 39 of the Rules and, there-fore, the order in Annexure '4' constituting another Ad Hoc Committee is not illegal and has been validly passed under Rule 39 itself and not under Section 5 of the Act as suggested by the petitioners. They have further asserted that the writ application was premature Inasmuch as an application for recognition of the school as having been established by a religious minority is still pending before the Education Department of the State Government and also because a suit being T. S. No, 336 of 1971 filed for the same purpose is still pending in the court of the Munsif, 1st Court.