MANJU DEVI Vs. DIST SUPDT OF EDUCATION BHAGALPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether a teacher in a privately managed school (though aided financially by the State) can maintain a writ petition against the termination of his services by such a school, has come to be the focal issue in this reference to the Full Bench.

(2.) Since this writ petition must founder on the bed-rock of the fatal objection to its very maintainability, it is unnecessary and indeed would be wasteful to delve into its facts too deeply. It suffices to notice the salient features pertaining to the maintainability of the writ petition which has been strenuously objected to by both the contesting State and the private respondent.

(3.) From the somewhat voluminuous pleadings it emerges that the respondent Marwari Kanya Pathshala, Bhagalpur, is a middle school, purely private in character, and run by a managing committee of its own. It is common ground that the said school has not been taken over under the Bihar Non-Government Elementary (Taking Over of Control) Act, 1976. At the material time the Headmistress of the said school was one Shrimati Mohini Tiwari who admittedly is the maternal aunt of the present petitioner, Shrimati Manju Devi. The Headmistress purported to appoint the petitioner on the 18th Jan., 1981 as a teacher in the school on a paltry honorarium of Rs. 55/- only. However, even this honorarium was discontinued by the managing committee. The petitioner was, however, charitably allowed to work without any payment whatsoever to enable her to be recommended for training by the District Superintendent of Education and this was also done on the request of the then Headmistress who, as noticed, was closely related to her.