CHENNAI: The Madras High court on Monday ordered the Tamil Nadu government to take a decision on the representation submitted by minority schools seeking exemption from certain provisions of the Tamil Nadu Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 2018, and the Tamil Nadu Private Schools (Regulation) Rules, 2023, before June 25.
The first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justices J Sathya Narayana Prasad set the ultimatum when the batch of petitions filed by minority schools run by Christian missionaries challenging the powers of several sections of both the Act and the Rules regulating the private schools came up for hearing.
Appearing for the petitioners, Fr Xavier Arulraj submitted that representations seeking exemption to the Christian minority institutions have been submitted to the Tamil Nadu government from such provisions that impinge upon the minority character of these institutions by exercising the powers under Section 19 of the Act. If the exemption is given, several of the petitions would become infructuous.
Advocate General PS Raman informed the court that the representations were under consideration of the government and they could not be proceeded due to the model code of conduct.
The bench stated that it will be appropriate if the government takes a decision on this issue under Section 19 of the Act to give exemption to the minority institutions.
“We place the matter on June 25, 2024 so as to enable the government to take appropriate decisions (by then),” the bench said in the order.
Moreover, it extended the order of status quo on the operation of the challenged provisions of the Act and the Rules till the next hearing.
The Christian minority schools have sought the government from bringing certain aspects, including the right to appoint teachers, control over the properties of the schools, nominating special officers to look into complaints and the right to redeploy teachers among their schools, exempted from the Act and the Rules.