CHENNAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has set aside two GOs of the School Education Department that refused government aid for non-teaching staff. The GOs set aside by the High Court had directed the aided minority schools and non-minority schools to spend their own funds in appointing certain non-teaching posts through outsourcing.
Justice D Hariparanthaman set aside the GOs dated May 30, 2007, July 23, 2010 and a consequential letter dated July 9, 2012 of the department while allowing a batch of writ petitions from the privately aided schools challenging the same. The judge directed the department to approve the appointment of non-teaching staff against sanctioned posts in the petitioner schools and to grant aid to them within six weeks.
The judge observed that the submissions of the counsel for petitioners that the State government, having enacted the TN Recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Act in 1973 and also framed the Rules thereunder in 1974, cannot issue administrative instructions by way of GOs overriding the provisions of the Act and the Rules that also go counter to the legislative intention of the Act and the Rules.
The issue involved in all these writ petitions relates to the appointment and approval of non-teaching staff in aided minority and non-minority schools governed by the provisions of the 1973, 1974 Rules, framed in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 56 of the said Act.
Since the posts are sanctioned by the School Education Director under Rule 15(1) of the Rules, the DEOs are bound to sanction grant as per Rule 11(2) of the Rules and there is no need to get prior permission from any authority to fill the vacancies that would arise in those sanctioned posts.
Unless the State government suitably amends the provisions of the Act and the Rules making it mandatory to obtain prior permission for filling up of those sanctioned non-teaching posts, the department could not issue impugned GOs. Since there is no such provision in the Act and the Rules to seek prior permission, the DEOs need not rely on them to seek permission of the State government to fill the sanctioned posts for approval of grants and therefore, the GOs and the consequential proceedings refusing approval of the non-teaching posts for the purpose of grant are in gross violation of the provisions of Sections 19 and 20 of the Act read with Rule 15 of the Rules, the judge said.
‘Extend free education up to Class 12’
Chennai: “It is my considered view that the constitutional duty of the State is to guarantee education upto school level, ie up to class 12,” Justice D Hariparanthaman said on Tuesday. The Judge said the scheme under Articles 21, 30, 41, 45 and 46 of the Constitution is to extend free education up to plus two, under the Secondary Education, and it is inseparable from the 10th Standard.