The Madras High Court has ordered notice on a writ petition praying for a direction to the school education and revenue authorities to protect the landed property of General Cariappa Higher Secondary School in Saligramam.
The first bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam, before which the public interest writ petition from M Kumar of Gandhi Nagar in Saligramam came up for hearing on Wednesday, ordered notice to the authorities concerned, returnable in four weeks.
According to Kumar, secretary of Nethaji Subash Chandra Bose Memorial National Welfare Foundation, the government, by way of a GO dated Sept 16, 1953, assigned the land measuring three acres and 59 cents for establishment of the school. As per the permission given, the property could be used only for running a school and not for any other purpose. The school started functioning in the name of former army General Cariappa in 1956. While so, the government, by a GO dated October 30, 2012, permitted the Guild of Service (Central) to run vocational courses on a non-profit basis in the land allotted to the school.
In his PIL, Kumar sought to quash the October 30 order of the School Education department as illegal and arbitrary, and consequently prayed for a direction to utilise the land only for the higher secondary school and a primary school.