CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday set aside a single judge’s order that had three years back quashed the state government’s decision for merger of schools having very low roll strength.
The division bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice MS Raman held that the policy of rationalisation and consolidation cannot be considered to be violative of any statutory provision. “We do not agree with the reason assigned by the single judge that the policy decision is bad because roll strength of a school is criteria for consolidation/integration/upgradation of schools.”
On March 11, 2020, the School and Mass Education department had issued a notification for merger of nearly 16,000 schools. But on May 4, 2021, the single judge quashed the notification and directed the department to restore the position of the schools in question, as before, and provide necessary infrastructure for smooth running of the same.
The government filed an appeal challenging the order in 2021. Acting on it, a division bench issued an interim stay on the order.
The bench on Tuesday gave its verdict saying, “The rationalisation policy cannot be held to be illegal merely on the ground that there is no such prescription under the RTE Act or ORTE Rules. The validity of such policy could be successfully challenged only when they were shown to be defeating the provisions of RTE Act or ORTE Rules and thereby Article 21A of the Constitution.”
“Consolidation of schools in the manner it has been decided to be undertaken by the state government under its policy if carried out judiciously cannot be said to be violating any provision under the Act or Rules until it is demonstrated on case-to-case basis that its implementation has impacted on access to education,” the bench also said.
The rationalisation policy is also in tune with the communication issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, department of School Education, and Literacy in relation to rationalisation of small schools across the state for better efficiency on July 7, 2017, the bench further noted.