GIRJA DEVI AND ORS Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard counsel for the petitioner and counsel for the Bihar Sanskrit Siksha Board as also counsel for the State.

(2.) In all these three writ petitions the grievance of the petitioners is almost same. The petitioners claim that the cases for grant of recognition of their respective Sanskrit School is pending for years together and that they are not being allowed by the Board to send in their students for appearing in Madhyama Examination. Counsel for the State and Board on the other hand submit that more than 4000 such schools are claiming grant of recognition and as such it is not possible to consider the cases of petitioners only.

(3.) All said and done, this court is of the opinion that the State Government nor Bihar Sanskrit Siksha Board can keep the fate and future of an institution seeking recognition hanging in balance for an indefinite long period. Under Section 6 of the Bihar Sanskrit Siksha Board Act, there is an enabling power in the Board to accord recognition to the Sanskrit Schools with the prior approval of the State Government. In such an exercise, the Chairman of the Board by himself cannot do anything unless the matter is referred to as a whole by the Board to the State Government. At that stage, the Board has to make a fact finding enquiry and see the availability and necessity of such an institution in the facility by considering the existing the earlier number of recognized Sanskrit Schools and a possible scope for emergence, establishment and functioning of a fresh institution. If the Board makes a recommendation for grant of recognition to any Sanskrit School to the State Government and the State Government agrees to such a proposal, the Board has to come out with a necessary decision or otherwise disclose reasons for not granting such recognition to the institution. This, however, has to be done in a fixed time frame and cannot be kept pending for an indefinite period.