IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.3783 of 2009 THE MAN.COMM.,LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI SANSKRIT HIGH SCHOOL BABHANGAMA& ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS With C.W.J.C.No.4134 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF LAL BACHCHA PRABODH MISHRA,SANSKRIT PRIMARY SAH MADHYAMIK SCHOOL PIPARAGHAT,MADHUBANI& ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. With C.W.J.C.No.4632 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF SAROBAR MOTI KRISHNA BALLABH SANSKRIT GIRLS PRIMARY CUM HIGH SCHOOL SUKHANAGAR JAYNAGAR& ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS With C.W.J.C. No. 4710 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF NEWAT SANSKRIT GIRLS PRIMARY CUM MIDDLE SCHOOL BARA EKMA & ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS With C.W.J.C. No. 4750 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF PURUSHOTTAM MAHAVIR JHA SANSKRIT PRIMARY CUM HIGH SCHOOL BINA ANDAULI SUPAUL & ANR Versus THE STAE OF BIHAR & ORS With C.W.J.C. No. 5363 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF DAMODAR SANSKRIT PRIMARY CUM HIGH SCHOOL BATHAI, DARBHANGA & ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. With C.W.J.C. No. 5622 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF BACHCHE LAL KULDEEP SANSKRIT HIGH SCHOOL,HANUMAN NAGAR & ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. With C.W.J.C. No. 6595 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF SARSWATI GANESH SANSKRIT HIGH SCHOOL, PAGDERA & ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. Versus C.W.J.C. No. 6596 of 2009 2 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF MAHAMAYA SANAKRIT HIGH SCHOOL, DHENGARI & ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. With C.W.J.C. No. 6597 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF RAM SUNDAR SMARAK PRIMARY CUM HIGH SANSKRIT SCHOOL, JAMUA KHAMGARA & ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS With C.W.J.C. No. 6598 of 2009 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF SHYAM RAM SANSKRIT HIGH SCHOOL, RAHATMANIA & ANR Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. ------------- 2 22/5/2009 Heard counsel for the petitioner and counsel for the Bihar Sanskrit Siksha Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board) as also counsel for the State. In all these eleven writ petitions the grievance of the petitioners is almost same. The petitioners claim that the cases for grant of recognition of their respective Sanskrit School is pending for years together and that for the present they are not being allowed by the Board to send up their students for appearing in Madhyama Examination 2009. Counsel for the State and Board on the other hand submit that the unrecognized schools cannot be allowed to send their students for appearing in Board’s Madhyama Examination. He further submits that more than 4000 such schools are claiming grant of recognition and as such it is not possible to consider the cases of petitioners only in isolation. All said and done, this Court is of the opinion that neither the State Government nor Bihar Sanskrit Siksha Board can 3 keep the fate and future of an institution seeking recognition hanging in balance for an indefinite long period. Under section 6 of the Bihar Sanskrit Siksha Board Act, there is an enabling power in the Board to accord recognition to the Sanskrit Schools with the prior approval of the State Government. In such an exercise, the Chairman of the Board by himself cannot do anything unless the grant of recognition to individual school is recommended by the Board to the State Government. For making such recommendation, the Board has to make a fact finding enquiry and examine the necessity of such an institution by considering the existence of earlier number of recognized Sanskrit Schools in the vicinity and as a whole with a view of need possible scope for emergence, establishment and functioning of the proposed school seeking recognition. If the Board being satisfied makes a recommendation for grant of recognition to such Sanskrit School to the State Government and the State Government agrees to the proposal, the Board has to come out with a necessary decision or otherwise disclose reasons for not granting such recognition to the institution. This, exercise however, has to be completed in a fixed time frame and cannot be kept pending for an indefinite period. That being so, these writ applications are being disposed of with a direction to the Secretary of the Bihar Sanskrit Siksha Board to process the case of recognition of not only these eleven schools but all other pending similar cases and place them before the Bihar Sanskrit Shiksha Board which must take its final 4 decision in a period of six months from the date of receipt of this order after taking into account the fulfillment of the criteria fixed in Recognition Rules framed by the State Government as also after considering the other factors such as viability and necessity of such schools. The Secretary to the Board thereafter may convey the aforesaid decision in form of recommendation of the Board to the Special Director, incharge of Sanskrit Education, who in turn would seek approval of the State Government through the Principal Secretary of the Human Resources Department. The State Government also must take its final decision within a period of next three months from the date of receipt of recommendation of the Board so that a final order in respect of all such schools seeking recognition is passed and communicated to all such schools/person including the petitioners before holding of the next year’s Madhyama examination conducted by the Board. It is however made clear that till a final decision is taken for grant of recognition in the manner indicated above the Board shall not allow students of any unrecognized Sanskrit School to appear in its Madhyama Examination 2009 as regular students and that it must treat all the unrecognized schools alike in the matter of allowing their students to appear in Board’s examination. With the aforementioned observations and directions, all of these writ applications are finally disposed of. Abhay Kumar (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)