RAM CHANDER PRASAD CHAURASIA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the issuance of a writ quashing an order passed by the Secretary, Secondary Board of Education, Bihar appointing an Ad Hoc Committee in place of a Managing Committee of a school and directing the respondents not to give effect to the same.

(2.) The petitioner claims to be a member of the Managing Committee which is sought to be replaced by the impugned order as also a member of a Board of Trust constituted in respect of the School. It is said that a high school called Uch Madhyamik Vidyalaya was started in the year 1964 by the petitioner and some others at Choukhandi Path in Sasaram in a rented building. This school was not functioning efficiently and there were financial difficulties. It was, there-fore, shifted to Rameshwarganj and it was renamed as Rameshwarganj Uch Vidyalaya (hereinafter referred to as 'the school'). In the year 1969 a Trust was created with regard to the ownership and the management of the school. A Managing Committee was also constituted. On the 2nd of November. 1970, the Board granted provisional recognition to the school for a period of one year and this period was further extended upto the 31st of December, 1971. The conditions upon which this provisional recognition had been granted having not been fulfilled, there was no further recognition after the expiry of the same on the 31st of December, 1971. The school thus remained an unrecognised institution.

(3.) There was, however, trouble with the headmaster, one Sheopujan Rai, who had defalcated some money of the school and mismanaged it in other respects. Accordingly his services were terminated. This dismissed headmaster started another school at Choukhandi Path. There was then an effort on their behalf to amalgamate the two schools. The matter was placed before the Managing Committee of the Rameshwarganj Uch Vidyalaya but they did not agree to amalgamation. This happened in May, 1972. Thereafter suddenly on the 7th of April. 1973 the Secretary of the school received a letter from the Secretary of the Board of Secondary Education communicating the Board's decision of appointing an Ad Hoc Committee in place of the existing Managing Committee which is Annexure 5. This was done without any notice to the Managing Committee and without their being heard in this respect The Secretary of the proposed Ad. Hoc Committee also wrote a letter dated the 6th of April, 1973 asking the Managing Committee to hand over charge, which is Annexure 6. Hence this application.