BENGALURU: The High Court on Monday dropped contempt proceedings against officials of the Education Department, including principal secretary of Primary and Secondary Education and Commissioner of Public Instructions, as the government has complied with the directions of the court with regard to granting registration to English-medium schools from Standard 1 to 5. However, the division bench, headed by Justice N Kumar and Justice B Srinivase Gowda, imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on the Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA), besides dismissing its plea.
The division bench said that the order dated April 6 ,2009 was to consider Rajajinagar Education Society for grant of registration to run an English-Medium school. On Monday, registration was granted to the Rajajinagar Education Society. “With this, the order dated April 6, 2009 is complied with and proceedings are dropped,” the bench said.
The division bench also said that the other complainant was KUSMA. It said that though it was the first petitioner in the case, no order was passed in its favour. “They still approached this court and wasted sufficient time of the court. In that view... the contempt petition against first petitioner is dismissed with a cost of Rs 10,000,” the bench said.
The cost was imposed after the counsel of KUSMA said that if the contempt plea is closed, then all the 1,000-odd member schools have to file petitions seeking the same relief.
Before this, Principal Secretary, Department of Primary and Education Department Kapil Mohan tendered an unconditional apology with regard to the delay in compliance.