- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) We are in this appeal concerned with the question whether the High Court was justified in directing the Secretary, General Education Department of the State of Kerala to get the verification of the actual students' strength in all the aided schools in the State with the assistance of the police and to take appropriate action.
(3.) The Assistant Educational Officer (AEO), Valappad had fixed the staff strength of S.N.V.U.P. School, Thalikulam for the year 2008-09 based on the visit report of High School Association (SS), GHS Kodakara as per Rule 12 of Chapter XXIII of Kerala Education Rules (KER). Later, based on a complaint regarding bogus admissions and irregular fixation of staff for the year 2008-09 by the AEO, the Super Check Cell, Malabar Region, Kozhikode made a surprise visit in the school on 17.09.2008 and physically verified the strength of the students and noticed undue shortage of attendance on that day. The strength verified by the Super Check Cell was not sufficient for allowing the divisions and posts sanctioned by the AEO. The Head Master of the School, however, stated in writing that the shortfall of attendance on the day of inspection was due to "Badar Day" of Muslim community and due to distribution of rice consequent to that. In order to confirm the genuineness of the facts stated by the Head Master, the Cell again visited the school on 16.12.2008. Verification could not be done on that day, hence the Cell again visited the school on 02.02.2009 and physically verified the students' strength. On that day also, there were large number of absentees as noticed on 17.09.2008. On verification of attendance register, it was found that the class teachers of respective classes had given bogus presence to all students on almost all the days. Enquiry revealed that the school authorities had obtained the staff fixation order for the year 2008-09 through bogus recordical admissions.;