SHETHNA, J. - (1.) THE petitioner Anwar Ali is a father of his minor daughter Shabnam, has filed this petition before this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution and prayed that the respondent No. 2, Secondary Board of Education, be directed to grant permission to his daughter Shabnam to persue her studies in 11th Standard in Commerce with an optional subject of Mathematics in Respondent No. 3 School-Rajkiya Balika Uchch Madhyamik Vidyalaya, Pali.
(2.) IT is also prayed by the petitioner in this petition that the Guidelines issued by the Secondary Board of Education, Rajasthan, Ajmer-respondent No. 2 at ITem No. 3 in Chapter 3 (Annex. A/3), giving permission to those students coming on transfer on the self-study basis, be struck down, being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Shabnam was studying in respondent No. 3-School upto 10th Standard with Urdu as an optional subject on self-study basis as there was no teacher teaching Urdu subject in that School. She has passed 10th Standard Examination with flying colours in First Class and, in "urdu" subject, she got 62+9, total 71 mar-ks, on self-study basis. She got her admission in 11th Standard, i. e. , Senior Secondary in the respondent No. 3-school itself in Commerce with an optional subject of Mathematics on the self-study basis as the subject of Mathematics was not taught in the respondent No. 3-School. Chapter 19 of Hand Book published by the respondent-Secondary Board Education, Rajasthan provides for Senior Secondary (Academic) Examination. According to para 2 of the said Chapter 19, for appearing in the Examination, following subjects being compulsory as well as optional subjects, are required to be taken by a student as prescribed in the respective 5 streams: (i) Arts; (ii) Science; (iii) Commerce; (iv) Agriculture; (v) Home Science. Compulsory subjects are Hindi and English. In Commerce stream, there are, in all, 7 optional subjects:- (i) Accounts (Compulsory); (ii) Business Organisation (Compulsory); (iii) Maths. & Statistics; (iv) Economic Administration and Financial Administration; (v) Hindi Shorthand and Typing; (vi) English Shorthand and Typing; (vii) Typing Hindi & English; Out of above 7 optional subjects in Commerce stream, a student has to take any three subjects, but in that optional subject also, subject No. (i) Accounts and subject No. (ii) Business Organisation are compulsory. Thus, out of the remaining 5 optional subjects, a student has to choose any one of them as third optional subject. Accordingly, Shabnam opted for the optional subject of Mathematics alongwith the subjects (i) Accounts; and (ii) Business Organisation. Similarly, two other girls (1) Meesa and (2) Apexa Raja, studying in the same Standard, i. e. , 11th B, alongwith Shabnam, opted for optional subjects of Mathematics and English respectively, whereas the 4th girl Garima Sharma, studying in 12th B of the respon-dent No. 3-School, opted for typing subject as an optional subject. It appears from the letter dated 18. 8. 1989 addressed by the respondent No. 3-School to the Secretary of the Respondent No. 2-Board that all those 4 girls passed the Secondary Examination in Ist Division, but they wanted to study in 11th Standard with the optional subjects of Business Organisation, Accounts and Mathematics. In that letter, the Principal asked the Secretary of the Board as to whether they can study in 11th Standard with the subject of Economics instead of Maths on self-study basis and would Board grant permission for that to appear in the Examination. Thus, Respondent No. 3 -School insisted that Shabnam should take optional subject of Economics instead of Mathematics. Respondent No. 2 Board replied the same on 25. 8. 1989 (Annex. 5) and stated that with reference to the application in connection with the self-study basis, the Principal of School should forward the entire matter alongwith the transfer order of the parents, transfer of the student and also the proof that the subject desired by the student is not being taught in any of the school in the city concerned, it is only then the grant for permission on self-study basis will become possible.
(3.) THE Principal of the Respondent No. 3-School once again wrote a letter dated 2. 9. 1989 (Annex. 6) to the Secretary of the Board to grant permission to all the four students, including Shabnam who wanted to persue their studies on the self-study basis. It was also clarified in that letter that the cases of all those students do not fall in the category of Item 3 of Chapter 3, therefore, as the permission to persue the study on the self-study basis can only be granted to the students whose parents have been transferred during mid-term and those students are not from that category, however, a request was made that such permission be also granted to those four students, so that they concentrate on their studies on the self-study basis. The above letter dated 2. 9. 1989 (Annex. 6) addressed by the Principal of the School to the Secretary of the Board remained unreplied. It is stated in the petition that the petitioner, father of Shabnam, approached the Secretary of the Board, but he was orally told that no such permission can be granted, therefore, the petitioner has filed this petition. At the outset, it may be stated that the learned counsel Mr. Joshi, for the petitioner, has given up his challenge to the vires of Item No. 3 of Guidelines in Chapter 3 framed by the Secretary, Education Board, Rajasthan, Ajmer, therefore, I am not required to deal with the same. ;