- (1.) RULE returnable forthwith. Respondents waive service. By consent of parties, petition is heard finally.
(2.) THIS petition is directed against the order dated 9/04/2001 passed by the Deputy Director of Education,. Aurangabad Division, Aurangabad, rejecting permission, to open a new secondary school at Supatgaon, Tahsil -Umerga. Dist. Usmanabad which was sought by the petitioner and in turn granting permission to the respondent No. 5 to open the secondary school. THE FACTS-IN-BRIEF
(3.) " The petitioner is a society registered under Societies Registration Act and also a Public Trust registered under the provisions of Bombay Public Trusts act. The petitioner in the year 1998 applied for permission to start a new secondary school at village Supatgaon, being a rehabilitated village which was constituted to settle the persons affected due to earthquake in the Latur area; which was demarcated in the Master Plan for opening a new secondary school. The petitioner, thereafter, sent several reminders to the respondents with a request to grant approval to open a new secondary school in the said village. Since the proposal moved by the petitioner was kept pending for a considerable long period, the petitioner had filed a Writ Petition being Writ Petition No. 4557/2000, which came to be disposed of by directing the respondent-State Government to forward the application of the petitioner within four weeks to the District Level committee, constituted as per the judgment of this Court in the case of Gramvikas shikshan Prasarak Mandal v. State of Maharashtra. The Division Bench of this Court had issued directions to the State to establish independent bodies at district and State level to consider applications seeking permission to open new schools, in a transparent and objective manner. The State Government accordingly prepared and furnished the scheme which had contemplated constitution of District and State Level Committees consisting of experts connected with the field of education, nominees of the Vice Chancellors and the Chancellor, as the case may be. The scheme submitted by the State Government was accepted by this Court with certain directions, as to how, such applications should be considered. The parameters laid down by this Court are reproduced hereinbelow: 1. Master Plan : (1) A Master Plan will be prepared by the State Government in order to facilitate grant of permission to primary, secondary and higher secondary schools for the next 10 years and the same will be observed scrupulously. The Master Plan will be placed before the High Court for approval. Once formulated, no change will be permitted in the master Plan except with the permission of the Court. (2) The Master Plan will be for Marathi Medium Schools only. Schools established by religious or linguistic minorities are required to be started according to necessity and, therefore, these schools will not be required to abide by the Master Plan. However, such schools will not be allowed to change their medium of instructions already granted without the permission of the Government. The grant of permission to establish schools by religious and linguistic minorities will be in accordance with their rights under Article 30 of the Constitution. (3) At present, there is no Master Plan for permission to primary schools. It will take sometime to prepare the same and, therefore, there will be no Master Plan for granting permissions to primary schools for the academic year 2000-2001. However, a Master Plan will be prepared for permission of private primary schools for the period 2001-2010. Urban, Semi-urban, anglometated habitations and villages having 10,000 population or more will be included in the Master Plan. (4) The existing Master Plan for Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools will be updated for the period 2000-2010. The conditions of 5 km. distance prescribed for starting secondary schools will be relaxed only in the case of areas suffering from special hindrances and these are hilly, mountainous, river and tribal areas. 2. Quota for School Permission. (1) Permission will be granted to 100 primary, 300 secondary and 50 higher secondary private schools every year from June, 2000. Primary education is a Constitutional responsibility of the Zilla Parishads, Nagar parishads, Cantonment Boards and Municipal Corporations and Primary Schools will be started by these local bodies. However, interested private institutions will be permitted to start 100 primary schools except English medium schools on permanent no grant basis. Secondary and higher secondary private schools will be considered for grant in accordance with Government policy. (2) Under the existing policy English medium secondary schools are permitted on permanent no-grant basis. There will be no quota limit for such English medium schools and other medium schools, permitted on permanent no grant basis. . (3) No separate girls schools will be sanctioned in future. Permissions will be granted only to start co-educational schools. (4) Nearly 11,000 habitations in the State are without primary education facility as these habitations do not fulfil the existing criteria (i. e 1. 5 km vicinity and 200 population for general areas and 100 population and 1 km. for tribal, hilly and remote areas ). The condition of 1. 5/1 km and population is relaxed to 1/2 km. Habitation schools will be started through gram Panchayats on the basis of Madhya Pradesh Governments "shikshan Hami Yojana". An annual expenditure for each Habitation school will be Rs. 13,000/ -. (5) In future, Std. XI and XII will not be affiliated to Senior Colleges. These classes will be attached to secondary schools only. If the intake capacity of the existing higher secondary schools is not sufficient to accommodate all eligible students permission will be granted to affiliate Std. XI and XII to senior colleges as an exception. 3. Application for permission to start a school. (1) Applications will be invited from private institutions according to the master Plan. . (2) Applications will be invited for secondary and higher secondary schools for the year 2000-2001 after the Master Plan is updated. (3) Chalan Fee will not be charged from the applicants for the year 2000-2001 who have applied for the same place in the Master Plan during the year 1999-2000 and have already deposited requisite Chalan Fee. (4) Late Chalan fee will not be allowed henceforth. 4. Scrutiny of Applications. (1) A District Level Committee will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Principal (DIET) to examine the applications. All the Education Officers in the concerned District will be Members of the Committee. The District Level Committee shall also consist of two representatives being experts in the field of education nominated by the vice Chancellor of the concerned University in the area. (2) The Regional Deputy Director will route the applications received from the Committee and will only submit them to the Director of Education, (3) A State Level Committee will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Director of Education, Chairman, Maharashtra State Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, Director State Council for educational Research and Training, Director, Adult Education and Director, Maharashtra State Bureau of Text Book Production and Curriculum Research. The State Level Committee shall also consist of two other Members who shall be educational experts nominated by the Chancellor. This Committee will select a maximum of two institutions for each location in the Master Plan. (4) Priority will be given to the applications received from the institutions who have offered to run the school on permanent no grant basis. The financial capacity of such institutions will be examined carefully. (5) Due care will be taken while sanctioning new schools to ensure that the existing schools will not close down for want of enrolment. Unhealthy competition should be avoided. (6) Applications will not be rejected for petty or insignificant reasons. Reasons for rejection of applications will be communicated to the concerned institutions. Similarly, while granting permission, the Committees will record reasons in order to ensure that the process is objective and transparent. (Emphasis supplied);