H.L.GOKHALE, J. - (1.) CIVIL Appeal Nos. 5247, 5244, 5248, 5245, 5246 of 2008 arise out of a common order and judgment dated 17.11.2004 passed by a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court at Lucknow on five Writ Petitions bearing Nos. 6415 (S/S) of 2002, 2759 (PIL) of 2003, 2049 (M/S) of 2003, 4704 (S/S) of 2003 and 7179 (M/B) of 2002. The appellant is an educational society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The issue in these five appeals is with respect to the decision of the appellant to shift the secondary and higher secondary courses of education conducted in its school and intermediate college, affiliated to the Board of High School and Intermediate Education of Uttar Pradesh ('U.P. State Board' for short), to the Indian Certificate for Secondary Education Course ('ICSE Course' for short) by seeking affiliation with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi ('Council' for short).
(2.) CIVIL Appeal Nos.5249-5250 of 2008 and 5251-5252 of 2008 arise out of Writ Petition Nos.119 and 120 (S/S) of 2005 which were filed by a few teachers seeking salary as a consequence of the above order dated 17.11.2004. A learned single Judge of Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had passed a common interim order dated 7.1.2005, on those two writ petitions in favour of the teachers, and the appellant had filed Special Appeal Nos. 59 and 60 of 2005 from those interim orders. A Division Bench of the High Court hearing those two Special Appeals had left the interim orders undisturbed by its common order dated 8.2.2005. These interim orders as well as the orders on the Special Appeals have been challenged by the appellant in Appeal Nos.5249-5250 and 5251-5252 of 2008. The Contempt Petition (C) No. 170/2005 has been filed by a few teachers alleging a breach of the interim order passed by this Court in these Civil Appeals. Short facts leading to all these matters are this wise :- The appellant is running a school and an intermediate college by name Colvin Taluqdar's Inter College in the City of Lucknow, U.P. The college was established in the year 1889, and as the name of the college indicates, as per the social circumstances existing in those days, erstwhile Zamindars and Taluqdars had a great sway in the management of this college. After the U.P. Intermediate Education Act, 1921 came to be passed to regulate the secondary education in the State, the school and Inter-college got affiliated with the U.P. State Board constituted under the said Act. The students from this school and college have been appearing for the X and XII standard examination, also known as the Secondary School Certificate and the Higher Secondary School Certificate Examination conducted by this Board. Presently the college and the school run by the appellant are situated on a piece of land admeasuring about 89 acres (in the prime area of the city of Lucknow) which has been leased out to the appellant society by the Government of U.P. in 1964 on a nominal yearly rent of a few hundred rupees. The college and the school initially imparted education from classes VI to XII, but later on, a primary section was also added in 1967-68. The Government of U.P. sanctioned a recurring grant of Rs. 25,000/- for maintenance to the college in the year 1952, and it was increased from time to time. The College received the grants till 1993-94.
(3.) IT is the case of the appellant, that the strata of the society from which the students were attending this school and intermediate college slowly started preferring the schools affiliated to the ICSE Course. The number of students went on dwindling, and therefore the appellant decided to switch over to the ICSE course run by the Council. The management sought the No Objection from the State of U.P. for this switch over, and the Joint Secretary of the Education Department of the State of U.P. informed the appellant by his letter dated 26.4.1980 that the State Government had no objection to the appellant-college getting affiliated to the course run by the Council subject to the following two conditions : "(1) An officer of the Education Department nominated by the State Government will be included in the Managing Committee by the Institution as the representative of the State Government. (2) 10% of the seats will be kept reserved for the wards of the officers of the State Government and admission to other students against such seats will only be possible in case of said students (wards) not being available." IT is the case of the appellant that consequently the ICSE Board, New Delhi, granted them certificate of affiliation on 25.11.1980 as a result of which the appellant-college started imparting education in two wings, viz. a wing attached to the ICSE Board, and another with the U.P. State Board. As the time passed further, the management of the appellant noted that the strength of the students taking the course run by the U.P. State Board was going down rapidly. Whereas, in 1995-96 the students enrolled with the U.P. State Board were in the range of 1800-1900, by the academic year 2000-01 the number of such students went down to just about 700. It also noticed that it was becoming uneconomical to run the U.P. State Board Section. The management, therefore, thought that it would be advisable to close down the U.P. State Board Section.;