Nexgen Education Trust (Regd) vs State of Karnataka and others. Writ Petitions 6058/2020 & 9554/2020 decided on 21 October 2020.
Judgment link:http://judgmenthck.kar.nic.in/judgmentsdsp/bitstream/123456789/345480/1/WP6058-20-21-10-2020.pdf
“The respondents have invoked the provision ..in a pedantic way like a village priest ritualistically murmuring the hymn without knowing its inner meaning; the constitutional guarantee of free-primary-education will not fructify in the absence of enough number of schools and therefore, the State action should be facilitative & complimentary to the establishment of private schools; the authorities need to be told that there exists a certain difference between a requisition for the grant of permission for founding a school and an application for the grant of excise license for opening a wine shop, they being poles asunder; the impugned orders lack elements of reason & justice; the process by which they have been made falls short of “fair standards” which a Welfare State should profess & practice.” – Justice Krisha S Dixit.
Relevant paragraphs : 6. Way back in 1930, in Interview with Izvestia, Rabindranath Tagore, had powerfully diagnosed: ‘In my view the imposing tower of misery which today rests on the heart of India has its sole foundation in the absence of education’; Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen in their treatise “An Uncertain Glory – INDIA AND ITS CONTRADICTIONS” in Chapter V at pages 107 to 109 write as under:
“The role of basic education in the process of development and social progress is very wide and critically important. First, the capability to read and write and count has powerful effects on our quality of life; education leads to an informed life, to communicate with others, and to be generally in touch with what is going on. In a society, particularly in the modern world, where so much depends on the written medium, being illiterate is like being imprisoned, and school education opens a door through which people can escape incarceration. Second, our economic opportunities and employment prospects depend greatly on our educational achievements… Third, illiteracy muffles the political voice of people and thus contributes directly to their insecurity … Fourth, basic education can play a major role in tackling public health problems in general and public health in particular … Fifth, educational development has often been the prime mover in bringing about changes in public perceptions of the range and reach of what can be called human rights … Sixth, education can also make a difference to the understanding and use of legal rights… When people are illiterate, their ability to understand, invoke and use their legal rights can be very limited… Lack of schooling can directly lead to insecurities… Seventh,…the schooling of young women can substantially enhance the voice and power of women in family decisions… Eighth, even though education is no magic bullet against class barriers, it can make a big contribution to reduce inequalities related to the divisions of class and caste… Last but not least, learning and studying can be immensely enjoyable … quite apart from the long run benefits people receive from it…”
7. 86th Amendment to the Constitution has introduced Article 21A with effect from 12.12.2002 which reads “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.” This provision is strengthened by adding clause (k) to Article 51A which enacts that it is a duty of a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his/her child or ward between the age of six & fourteen years; the importance of these new provisions can be understood by the observations of the Apex Court to the effect that without Article 21A, the other fundamental rights are rendered meaningless; without education, a citizen may never come to know of his other rights; since there is no corresponding constitutional right to higher education, the fundamental stress has to be on primary and elementary education, so that a proper foundation for higher education can be effectively laid vide BHARTIYA SEWA SAMAJ TRUST vs. YOGESHBHAI AMBALAL PATEL, (2012) 9 SCC 310;
8. It needs to be noted that the Parliament has enacted the Right to Education Act, 2009 and expanded its scope by a few amendments inter alia imposing an obligation even on private schools to admit students from the State Government quota, subject to certain conditions; this is because of the fact that the school education in the country inter alia suffers from the limitation of coverage; there are no enough number of government/public schools to cater to the societal need; a corresponding statutory duty is cast on the private schools to make the fundamental right to free education at the primary level, meaningful; if the applications for grant of permission to establish such schools are mindlessly declined, that would muffle the inner voice of the aforesaid constitutional amendments that are complimented by legislative instruments; the first sentence in the first paragraph of the Writ Petition, reads – “That the petitioner Trust has one of its object, is to establish educational institution and provide educational facilities to all sections of societies on no profit and no loss basis”; this has not been controverted by the respondents in their Statement of Objections; there is some material on record to show that the petitioner-Trust has been running several educational institutions; the version of the answering respondents that the petitioner-Trust is not adhering to Government Orders, lacks material particulars, to say the least; the school building in question is completely surrounded by a compound wall; in cities like Bangalore, several schools and fuel stations co-exist & function as peaceful neighbours; it is nobody’s case that precautionary measures cannot be taken to avoid likely accidents; therefore, the existence of a petrol pump beside it, is only a feeble ground to deny permission;
9. The above aspects have not factored even in the penumbra of impugned decision making at the hands of the answering respondents; they have invoked the provisions of Rule 4 of Karnataka Educational Institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of Curricula etc) Rules, 1995 as amended vide notification dated 08.03.2018, in a pedantic way like a village priest ritualistically murmuring the hymn without knowing its inner meaning; the constitutional guarantee of free-primary-education will not fructify in the absence of enough number of schools and therefore, the State action should be facilitative & complimentary to the establishment of private schools; the authorities need to be told that there exists a certain difference between a requisition for the grant of permission for founding a school and an application for the grant of excise license for opening a wine shop, they being poles asunder; the impugned orders lack elements of reason & justice; the process by which they have been made falls short of “fair standards” which a Welfare State should profess & practice.
In the above circumstances, these Writ Petitions succeed; a Writ of Certiorari issues invalidating the impugned orders; the matter is remitted back to the 2nd respondent- DDPI for consideration afresh, in accordance with law and after providing an opportunity of hearing to all the stakeholders. Time for compliance is eight weeks from the date a copy of this order is produced, subject to the rider that delay if brooked shall entail the concerned official personally with a cost of Rs.10,000/- per week payable to the petitioner-Trust; the time taken by the petitioner-Trust for production of documents or the like, shall be excluded while computing the said period of eight weeks.
Compiled by S. Basavaraj, Advocate, Daksha Legal.
Daksha Legal 