RAM AUTAR SAHAI Vs. SUB DIVISIONAL EDUCATION OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Article 226 of the Constitution by a person who claims to be the proprietor of a High School named after him at Jhandaha, challenging the validity of certain actions taken by the educational authorities under the provisions of the Bihar High Schools (Constitution, Powers and Functions of Managing Committee) Rules, 1964, (hereinafter referred to as "the rules") for constituting a Managing Committee for the said school.

(2.) The petitioner's case is that he started the said School sometime in 1937, constructed the building on his own plot of land at a heavy cost and for some years met the entire expenses of running the school. This statement of fact is not wholly accepted by the respondents on whose behalf an affidavit was filed to show that the school was started by donations made by a large number of the public also, though the petitioner's total contribution to the school was more than Rs. 10,000. It was also asserted in the counter-affidavit that the school was getting aid and grant from Government regularly. Government therefore treated the school as an aided school and wanted to constitute a Managing Committee for the School in accordance with the provisions of the rules, though in view of the large contribution made by the petitioner, Government recognized him as a life-member of the said school as defined in Clause (10) of Rule 2 of the Rules.

(3.) Most of the legal questions involved in this writ petition are already concluded by a Division Bench Judgment of this Court in Sri Lal Mohan Sah v. State of Bihar, C. W. J. C. No. 618 of 1965, disposed of on 20-8-1965 (Pat), Mr. Basudeva Prasad for the petitioner, therefore, confined his argument to a very limited question, namely, whether by an artificial definition of the expressions "proprietor" and "proprietary school" in Clauses (12) and (13) of Rule 2 of the Rules the school could be taken away from the category of a proprietary school and treated as an ordinary aided school receiving grant and aid from the Government. For appreciating this point it will be useful to quote the definitions of the said two expressions: