CHENNAI: Holding that the right conferred on the minorities to establish educational institutions as enshrined under Article 30(1) of the Constitution cannot be abrogated, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday ruled that a 2011 GO stipulating Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), as per the directions of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), cannot be made applicable to minority institutions.
“We are of the view that the government cannot insist upon the minority institutions, both aided or unaided, to abide by any regulation framed under the provisions of the Right to Education Act. Therefore, we hold that the GO dated November 15, 2011, of the School Education (C2) Department is not applicable to the minority institutions. Similarly, a GO issued by the Puducherry government dated March 18, 2015, on the same lines is also not applicable to the minority institutions,” the Bench said.
After acknowledging the contentions of senior counsel A Xavier Arul Raj and others, the Bench allowed a batch of over 100 writ petitions and dismissed two writ appeals. While the appeals from the government challenged the orders of a single judge dated July 31, 2015, directing it to grant temporary approval to the petitioner schools to pay salaries of the teachers employed by them.
The Bench directed the government to release the salary of the teachers and to pay the arrears within two months.