MANJULA MANJARI DEI Vs. M C PRADHAN DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the proprietrix of a firm of publishers known as Mahaprasad Brothers who published an Oriya book known as "AMA ITIHASA GAPA" which was prescribed as a text-book for Class IV in the Schools of Orissa. This book was in the list of approved text-books published by the Director of Public Instruction, Orissa, and was recommended as a suitable text-book for Class IV for the year 1951-52. For the next year, namely 1952-53, a fresh list of approved text books was published by the Director of Public Instruction in which the above publication did not find a place. The petitioner's grievance is that she sustained a loss of about Rs. 4,000/-as, by the omission of her publication from the approved list, 7000 copies of the same remained unsold. She has therefore applied, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for the issuances of a writ in th? nature of mandamus or certiorari against the Director of Public Instruction, Orissa, directing that officer to include the said book in the list of approved text-books for the year 1952-53.

(2.) The sheet-anchor of the petitioner's case is that once a publication is approved by the Director of Public Instruction as a text book it will ordinarily continue on the approved list for at least two years, according to Article 831 of the Bihar and Orissa Education Code. Relying on this rule, the petitioner printed and published 20,000 copies of her publication known as "AMA ITIHASA GAPA". This rule was extended to South Orissa by a Gazette Notification dated 15th March 1940, issued by Government, and the Secretary of the Text Book Committee, Orissa issued a notice that with "the commencement of the school year 1940-41 the minimum period for which a book approved as a text book in South Orissa has to be included in the approved list, will be two years instead of five years as at present." The petitioner, therefore, expected that her publication would be continued as an approved text book at least for the year 1952-53 and she had accordingly printed 20,000 copies, out of which however only 13,000 copies were sold in, the year 1951-52. It is, therefore, contended that the Director of Public Instruction acted contrary to the Rules in setting up a Committee of his own for approval of text books and in dropping the petitioner's publication from the list of approved text-books for the year 1952-53. She further complains that the Committee set up by the Director was not in accordance with the rules as it did not consist of twenty members and that its constitution is not warranted by Article 792 of the Bihar and Orissa Education Code. It is accordingly urged that the notification issued by the Secretary of the Text Book Committee, Orissa, in 1940, is still in force and that the opposite party has acted illegally in removing the petitioner's publication from the list of approved text-books before the expiry of two years. The action of the Director of Public Instruction is challenged as being arbitrary and opposed to the rules framed by Government.

(3.) On behalf of the opposite party it is contended firstly, that the Orissa Text Book Committee was suspended by an order of Government, communicated in their letter No. 1783-E (c) dated 13th May 1942 and all powers exercised by the Committee till then vested in the Director of Public Instruction with effect from that date; secondly, that a new Text Book Committee has not been constituted till now, Government having directed by another letter No. 5046-E dated 21st August 1951 that no new Committee should be constituted on account of financial stringency and being of opinion that the work of reviewing text-books, as at present, was going on smoothly and with the minimum expense; and thirdly, that Government authorised the Director of Public Instruction by a letter. No. 5056-E., dated 10th Septr. 1947 to call for books from various publishers for examination and approval, subject to the condition that as soon as any new book is printed by Government in any subject for any class, it will be made a text book from the next Session and that he will cease to call for books from any publishers in that subject for that particular Class. The Government had also directed, in that letter, that all text-books should aim at imparting education in various subjects which would make the boys and girls patriotic and alive to their sense of responsibility and duty as free citizens of an independent country. In accordance with this letter, the Director of Public Instruction issued a warning to all publishers from the year 1948 and successively every year thereafter that "books may be removed from the list or replaced by Government publications next year". The Director of Public Instruction repeated this warning in the notification dated 3rd April 1951 published in the Orissa Gazette dated 13th April 1951. This notification contains a list of approved textbooks for the schools session of 1951-52, including the petitioner's publication. On 8th September 1951 the Director of Public Instruction issued a set of rules indicating how books for approval as text books should be submitted, how books on language subjects should be written, and what topics are to be followed in compiling readers for classes IV & V and these directions were duly published . These rules also contain a warning in the following terms: