Madhya Pradesh High Court Sharique Ali And Ors. vs State Of Madhya Pradesh And Ors. on 11 January, 2002 Equivalent citations: 2002(1)MPHT315 ORDER Dipak Misra, J. 1. The centrum, issue that we are obligated to advert to in this batch of writ petitions, which are inseggregable and inseverable, is "education" that makes a man a complete human being in its conceptual essence and connotative continuum. In the days of yore, a realised poet Bhartruhari sang in the glory of 'Vidya' in the following terms: "VIDYA NAAM NARASYA ROOPAMADHIKAM PRACHHANNA GUPTAM DHANAM VIDYA BHOGAKARI YAASHAH SUKHAKARIYI VIDYA GURUNAM GURUH VIDYA BANDHUJANO VIDESHGAMANE VIDYAPARAM DAIVATAM VIDYA RAJASUPUJYATE NAHI DHANAM VIDYA BIHINAH PASHUH." A free translation of the aforesaid verse would mean that education is the most resplendent exposition of a man and in it inheres the concept of quintessential treasure. It is the bedrock of all happiness, fame and pleasure. Education is the preceptor of the teacher and acts as a dear friend in travel and is the supreme God, the creative intelligence. It is education but not money which is honoured and respected in the royal assembly. For these reasons, a man without education is equated with an animal. 2. In this context, we may profitably refer to the wise saying of the great Chanakya, the eminent political philosopher of India, who in his own inimitable style expressed thus: "KAMADHENU GUNA VIDYA HYAKAALE PHALADAYINI. PRABASE MATRU SADRUSEE VIDYA GUPTAM DHANAM SMRITAM." Another ancient sage of India giving emphasis on the utility of education expressed thus: "MATEVA RAKSHATI PITEVA HITENIYUNKTE KANTEVA CHAVIRAMAYANTYAPANEEYA KHEDAM LAKSHMIM TANOTI VITONATI CHA DIKSHU KEERTIM, KIM KIM NA SADHAYA TI KALPA LATEVA VIDYA." Yet a further sagacious saying : "NA CHOURAHARYAMA NA CHA RAJAHARYAM, NA BHARTRUBHARYAMA NA CHA BHARAKARI, VYAYE KRITE VARDHATA EVA NITYAM VIDYA DHANAM, SARVA DHANAM PRADHANAM." From the aforesaid it is quite luminescent that it is education, the real hidden treasure in a man, which comes to his aid. Not for nothing it has been said that the process of evolution from ignorance to knowledge, from knowledge to wisdom and from wisdom to understanding of consciousness takes place through education which is regarded as a part of divine attainment. It is education which teaches purity of mind, righteousness of conduct and truthfulness of soul. If we allow ourselves to say so, education has the potentiality of metamorphosing eternal passion to everlasting sublimation and eternal pain to permanent peace. 3. We have begun with the aforesaid prefatory note because it is the spinal issue that has spiralled to this Court, and there was quite a long debate on the said score. The main thrust is : whether the State of Madhya Pradesh which for more than last two scores and more years had endeavoured to build an educational system to make people realise their individuality in a wholesome manner to achieve the requisite goal in a democratic set up and provide such necessitus facility so that they can aspire to become a part of the global education system and, if we confer the allowance upon ourselves to state, it leaped a step forward keeping pace with the concept of modernity and progress, be allowed to crush the edifice that had been so carefully and exquisitely built with enormous and sanguine effort; should the real concept of education be crucified at the altar of the literacy programme should the State be permitted to dismember and scuttle the growth of NonGovernment aided educational institutions for making some improvement of Government run institutions or should they be treated with the feeling of sorority and concinnity as if they are two inseparable limbs of the same mother the welfare State; and further whether the teachers or the Gums, who had been put on a pedestal on the basis of the principle that they had been ascribed the role AGYAN TIMIRANDHASYA GNYANANJAN SALAKYA since ages, be compelled and constrained to lead a life which is sans substance, sans spark that livens life and sans a meaningful and purposeful living. To elaborate, we are in these writ petitions, called upon to deal with a situation which, according to our humble view, is a complex one because of its own peculiarity and the attached gravity. The situation frescoes a picture where the registered societies which run educational institutions and the teachers who impart education in these educational institutions have come to the centrestage as protagonists to canvass and propound their point of view and have called in question the pregnability and penetrability of the amendments that have been brought into the statute book, namely, the Ashaskiya Shikshan Sanstha (Adhyapakon Tatha Anya Karmachariyon Ke Vetano Ka Sandaya) Adhiniyam, 1978 (M.P. Act No. 20 of 1978), (hereinafter refe