Case: Commissioner, Lucknow Division And Ors Vs. Kumari Prem Lata Misra

1. Colvin Taluqdars College in Lucknow, run by a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, imparts education at the following differentc i.e., nursery classes.(ii) Junior basic, called primary stage, from class I to V.(iii) Senior basic i.e., Junior high school stage from class VI to VIII, and(iv) Higher secondary stage, called high school stage classes IX and X.(b) Intermediate>2. In the beginning the college had noor junior basic classes and started with class VI; classes I to V and nursery classes were opened later. The respondent was appointed an assistant teacher in the basic section o f the college in 1961. Following certain incidents involving her, she was suspended on or about August 20, 1970. and ultimately her services were terminated by the managing committee of the college some time in October 1970. She flied a writ petition in the High Court at Allahabad (Lucknow Bench) alleging inter alia that the order terminating her services was mala fide and made in violation of the regulations framed under the (U.P.) Intermediate Education Act, 1921. She asked for a writ of certiorari quashing the order of suspension and the order terminating her services, and a writ of mandamus directing the opposite parties to pay the full salary and emoluments due to her. The president of the managing committee of the college, the principal, the head mistress of the basic section and the committee of management were impleaded as opposite parties 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. The writ petition was dismissed by a single Judge of the High Court on a preliminary ground that none of the opposite parties was a public authority and the impugned orders suspending her and terminating her services were not made in the exercise of any statutory function. On appeal a Division Bench of the High Court took the view that the basic section of the college was an integral part of the college and held that the managing committee of the college was a statutory body constituted under the Intermediate Education Act and governed by the regulations framed thereunder. The Division Bench therefore found t he writ petition maintainable and remanded the case to the single Judge to be decided on merits.The Intermediate Education Act, 1921, as its longis an Act for the establishment of a Board of High School and Intermediate Education. The preamble says that it was enacted because it was expedient to establish a Board to take the place of the Allahabad University in regulating and supervising the system o f High school and Intermediate education in the United Provinces, and to prescribe courses therefore.

Reasoning: It seems clear from the provisions set out above that they all relate to recognized institutions; recognition is by the Board for the purpose of pre paring candidates for admission to the Boards examination, and Board means the Board of High School and Intermediate Education. The basic section of a school cannot therefore be part of a recognized institution. We are unable to agree with the view taken by the Division Bench of the High Court that the basic section is an integral part of the institution and therefore must be governed by the provisions of the Intermediate Education Act, 1921. A school by extending its operation to fields beyond that covered by the Act cannot extend the ambit of the Act to include in its sweep these new fields of education which are outside its scope. The case of the appellants on this point appears from thefiled by them in answer to the writ petition. It is said that "the college is running the Basic Section independently and is neither registered by the Government nor affiliated by any localneither any grant in aid is being taken by the department to run this section accordingly. The college has its own rules and regulations to conduct the Basic Section." It is not correct to think that since the college has to have a committee of management as required by sectiona managing committee that looks after the affairs of the Basic Section of the college must als o be functioning as a statutory body discharging duties under the Intermediate Education Act and governed by the Regulations framed thereunder. The Division Bench sought support for the view it had taken from some pro visions in the Educational Code of Uttar Pradesh but, as pointed by the learned single Judge, the Code is only a compilation of the various administrative rules and orders relating to educational institutions in the State and has no statutory force.