MADURAI: A man's plea for a court directive to government officials to shut two schools run by his estranged wife and father-in-law as they were "not qualified" to run it was dismissed by Madras High Court, which said that filing such a case "will make his better half into bitter half".
Justice S Vaidyanathan also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 today on Ramakrishnan while dismissing his plea, saying he was only a third party to the school and he had no locus standi to file the frivolous case to take vengeance on them. Filing such a case "will make his better half into bitter half", the judge said.
The petitioner was not entitled to seek such a direction from the school department officials or Dindigul District Collector, where the two schools were located, he said.
On the petitioner's plea that both were not qualified to run the school, the Judge said there was no need for a person to be educated to run it. Only qualified teachers are needed and should be recruited.
The court said the petitioner could not dictate to the authorities to initiate action against the respondents. He had filed the case just to pressurise his wife and father-in-law to arrive at a settlement.
Ramakrishnan alleged that his wife and father-in-law were charging exorbitant fees and had "stolen" electricity to the tune of several thousand rupees. Though he had given a representation to officials to take action against the school, they had not done so.
Hence he sought a directive from the court to shut the school.