HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE B. SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION No. 24328 OF2003 Dated 07-12-2005 Between : Sri Padmaja Education Society, Rudravaram, Kurnool District, represented by its Secretary, Sri R. Muralidhar, son of Seshagiri Sastry, aged 49 years, resident of Rudravaram, Kurnool District. ….Petitioner. And : 1, The District Educational Officer, Kurnool, Kurnool District and another. …Respondents. ORDER : This writ petition has been filed by Sri Padmaja Education Society, Rudravaram, Kurnool District represented by its Secretary, Sri R. Muralidhar assailing the proceedings issued by the District Educational Officer, Kurnool District vide proceedings Rc.No.733/C4/2003 dated 10-10-2003 whereby and whereunder the instructions have been issued to the Mandal Educational Officer to inform the petitioner to get the T.G. Bills signed by the Head Master who is in receipt of Grant- in-aid and resubmit the same for taking further action. 2. R.Muralidhar, Secretary of the petitioner-society and Correspondent of Sri Arunodaya Upper Primary School has sworn to the writ affidavit. The case of the writ petitioner as stated in the affidavit, in brief, is : The petitioner is a society registered under Societies Act with Registration No.127 of 1984. It established Sri Arunodaya Primary School in the year 1984 and the same has been upgraded as Upper Primary School. About 200 children are studying in the said school from 1st to VIII classes. There are 2 B.Ed Assistant Posts, 2 Grade-II Language Pandit posts and 5 Secondary Grade teacher posts. Of these, 5 Secondary Grade Teacher posts are already admitted to grant-in-aid in 1993. With regard to B.Ed Assistants and language pandit posts, they are yet to be admitted to grant-in-aid. There is no regular Head Master post in the Upper Primary school pattern. According to the instructions in vogue issued by the Director of School Education, the senior most B.Ed Assistant has to be appoionted as incharge Head Master. Accordingly, the management appointed one B. Jabbar, B.Ed Assistant as Head Master. He has been discharging the duties as Head Master since April, 2002. According to the staff pattern, the Secondary Grade Teachers can teach upto V class. Since the classes in the school are from 1st to VII, the management appointed B.Ed Assistant-B.Jabbar as Head Master incharge. The appointment of B.Jabbar as Head Master of the school has been approved by the competent authority vide proceedings in Spl./B2/98, dated 22.1.1996. The salary bills sent under the signature of the Head Master were honoured by the authorities till April, 2003 without any objection. The office of District Educational officer returned the pay bills of May, 2003 on the plea that the pay bills should be signed only by the Head Master who is in receipt of the aid. The school addressed a letter to the District Educational Officer-1st respondent stating that B.Ed Assistant alone has to be appointed as Head Master in Upper Primary School and as such, B.Ed Assistant has been working as Head Master for the last 18 years. The 1st respondent made an endorsement on the representation of the school stating that B.Ed Assistant (S.A) has to be appointed as Head Master of Upper Primary School. The school submitted fresh bills to the 2nd respondent who forwarded them to 1st respondent. The bills sent by the school came to be returned by the 1st respondent with an endorsement to follow the earlier instructions issued on 8.7.2003. As per the Director of School Education proceedings dated 24.2.1987, only B.Ed Assistant should be appointed as Head Master of Upper Primary school and the management is competent to appoint Head Master. The respondents have no power to direct the petitioner- Society to appoint a particular person as Head Master. Hence, there is no justification on the part of the respondent-authorities to interfere with the administration of the school which effects the right of the petitioner guaranteed under Art.19(1) g of the Constitution of India. 3. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Government Pleader for School Education appearing on behalf of the respondents. 4. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the staff pattern in the petitioner-school is 2 B.Ed., Assistant Posts (unaided), two II-Grade Telugu Pandit posts (unaided) and 5 S.G.B.T. Posts (aided). The bills of the school have been submitted under the signature of senior most B.Ed. Assistant. The said bills came to be returned by the office of the District Educational Officer with the endorsement vide X N. Dis. No.B2/498 and 499/2003, dated 8-7-2003 which reads as follows : “The bills are signed by the Head Master whose name is not found on the rolls in the T.G. Bill. The bills should be signed by the Teacher/Head Master who is in receipt of Grant-in-Aid.” Hence this writ petition. 5. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that as per the proceedings of the Director of School Education, Hyderabad, bills are required to be signed by the senior most S.G.B.T. where there is no B.Ed. post and since there are two B.Ed. Assistant posts in the school, the senior most among them has signed the bills and that the action of the respondents in returning the bills is contrary to the proceedings issued by the Director of School Education. He refers the relevant portion of the proceedings of the Director of School Education which reads as under : “In the Upper Primary School where there is B.Ed post, the B.Ed Assistant has to be appointed as Head Master. Where there B.Ed post is not available, the senior most S.G.B.T. has to be appointed as Head Master of Upper Primary School. Higher Elementary Grade Teachers cannot be appointed as Head Master of Upper Primary School. All the District Educational Officers and District Development Officers, Zilla Praja Parishad in the State are requested to follow the above scrupulously.” 6. The learned Government Pleader for School Education submits that the pay bills are to be prepared by the senior most S.G.B.T. candidate in the school instead of unaided school assistant in the absence of aided Head Master of the school and since the bills are signed by the unaided B.Ed., Assistant, the same are returned. Therefore, the action of the respondents is in accordance with the instructions issued by the Education Department from time to time. He refers G.O. Rt. No.1506 Education dated 03-08-1970 whereby the amendment to rule 56 of Andhra Pradesh Educational Rules came to be published. The amendment reads as follows : “The appointment of Headmasters in Aided Elementary and Upper Primary Schools shall be made by the management on the basis of seniority-cum- merit of the qualified teachers working under the same management. The management shall consult the Deputy Inspector of Schools concerned as regards the suitability of the person for appointment as Headmaster.” 7. He also refers the proceedings of the Commissioner and Director of School Education, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad dated 07-04-2004 which read as follows : “The attention of the District Educational Officer, Kurnool is invited to the reference read above and he is informed that as per rules the drawing and disbursing duties/powers are vested with the correspondents of the Private Aided Schools whose correspondent-ship is approved by the Department. As such the correspondent has to sign the T.G. Bills and submit to the authorities. He is therefore, requested to inform the correspondent once again to submit the bills with the signature of the correspondent, prepared and signed by the senior most Aided SGT candidate in the school instead of un-aided School Assistants of the school in the absence of regular Aided Headmaster of the school, since the unaided staff members are not responsible officers in dealing with T. G. Bills of Private Aided schools.” “This has the approval of the Commissioner and Director of School Education, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.” 8. The above proceedings came to be issued in respect of the petitioner-school. On a plain reading of the above proceeding discloses that the T.G. Bills are required to be prepared and signed by the senior most S.G.B.T. in the school and they are to be sent under the signature of the Correspondent. Admittedly, there are 5 S.G.B.T. posts in the petitioner-school. There cannot be any difficulty for the petitioner-school to comply with the instructions issued by the District Educational Officer-1st respondent under proceedings X. N. Dis. No.B2/498/2003, dated 08-07-2003. 9. In that view of the matter, I deem it appropriate to direct the petitioner to resubmit its bills in accordance with the instructions issued by the District Educational Officer- 1st respondent under proceedings X. N. Dis. No.B2/498/2003, dated 08-07-2003. No costs. __________________________ Justice B.SESHASAYANA REDDY Date : 07-12-2005. Dvs HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE B. SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION No. 24328 OF 2003 Dated 07-12-2005