1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR. WRIT PETITION NO. 4965 OF 2006 Shantiniketan B. Sanstha .vs. State of Mah. and others ________________________________________________________________ Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders or directions and Court's or Judge's orders. Registrars orders. Mr. Wakode, Advocate for petitioner, Mr. Deopujari, A.G.P. for respondent nos. 1 to 3. CORAM: ANOOP V. MOHTA & C.L. PANGARKAR, JJ. DATED: JULY 17, 2008. The basic prayer of the petitioner is to grant the status of Hindu linguistic minority. This Court by order dated 27.4.2006 considering the earlier Writ Petition No. 2210/06 filed by the petitioner ordered as under :- “In the backdrop of the above referred facts, the writ petition is disposed of with direction to respondent No.1 to decide entitlement of the petitioner to get the status of Hindi Linguistic Minority Institution, if not decided earlier, on its own merits, according to law and procedure applicable in this regard, as early as possible, in any case not beyond the period of six weeks from the date of receipt of this order.” The submission of respondents as quoted in para nos. 4 & 5 are reproduced as under :- “It is further submitted that in order to maintain uniformity in 2 granting minority status, the Government has decided that the General Administration Department of Government of Maharashtra shall deal with the cases pertaining to grant of minority status to the Education Institutions. 5. In view of above, now henceforth the General Administration Department, Government of Maharashtra will deal with the application of the Institutions for grant of minority status to the institutions and therefore the petitioner society shall have to approach the General Administration Department, Government of Maharashtra for grant of minority status to the institution.” The fact remains that this Court has already ordered the respondents to consider the case of the petitioner in accordance with the law. The bifurcation of department even if any, that by itself cannot be the reason to overlook the direction given by this Court. In view of this, we see there is no reason that the respondents should not consider and follow the procedure as prescribed and deal with the application as already filed by the petitioner within reasonable time, preferably within eight weeks' time. The petitioner to cooperate in all respects and if necessary to supply copy of representation and/or material to the General Administration Department, Government of Maharashtra within two weeks. In so far as the interim relief in terms of prayer clause (ii) as granted by this Court dated 12.10.2006 is concerned, the same has been in 3 force till this date. This Court after considering the rival contentions of the parties has granted the same. Therefore, the said ad-interim relief should continue till the decision of the application filed by the petitioner as directed above. However, the respondents while considering the case of petitioner are free to take decision in accordance with the law, uninfluenced by the orders and reasoning given by this Court. The petition is allowed accordingly. JUDGE JUDGE. J.