B.K.MEHTA - (1.)By this group of 40 petitions the respective petitioners who represent the private management of primary approved schools separating within the jurisdiction of different Municipalities or Distict Panchayats in the State challenge the amendments in the Bombay Primary Education Rules 1949 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules of 1949 seeking to regulate the matter of recognition of such schools and their continuance by linking them inter alia with compliance of Schedule F containing the Model Standing Orders governing the teachers-management relations. In all these petitions the challenge to the amendments in the rules is founded on the same contentions though in three of them namely Sp.C.A. Nos. 1353 of 1978 982 of 1978 and 820 of 1978 over and above the common reliefs sought in this group the individual orders or actions of the Government are also challenged. The nature of the school management in the majority of the petitions is by and through public trusts and in a few of them it is a proprietory managment.
(2.)Sp.C.A. Nos. 820 of 1978 972 of 1979 and 1323 of 1979 are schools run by religious minorities. Except this peculiar feature the contentions urged in all these petitions are by and large common and in similar terms and the reliefs claimed are also the same except in the aforesaid petitions where the individual action is challenged and therefore we propose to dispose of the entire group except the aforesaid three petitions by the minority communities by this common judgment. However in order to appreciate the contentions which have been urged it would be profitable to set out the facts from the first petition which we had taken up for hearing viz. Special Civil Application No. 305 of 1979 which will serve as sample facts.
(3.)It should be noted at the outset that the majority out of this group is by the school managements operating in Ahmedabad city and Ahmedabad (Rural) district. They are as may as 16. The other major group is from Baroda. The rest are from Kheda Mehsana Sabarkantha Banaskantha Rajkot Surendranagar Bhavnagar and Amreli. The relevant facts which we have taken from Special Civil Application No. 305 of 1979 should be referred to as sample facts representing the facts of these different petitions and they are as under: