Judgement

P. JAGANMOHAN REDDY, J.:- 22. Writ Petitions were filed in the High Court of Madras by publishers of text-books for Government Schools, Dist Board and Municipal Council Schools challenging the directions of the Deputy Secretary to Government, Education Department, contained in his D. O. letter No. 54582/E5/69, Education, dated 12th August, 1969, addressed to District Collectors and Local Board authorities that they should intimate to the publishers of the books which are prescribed for the year 1969-70 that after the end of the School year they will no longer be prescribed. A Division Bench of the High Court allowed the Writ Petitions. From this decision, 19 appeals are before us by certificate. It appears that the Government of Tamil Nadu in furtherance of its policy to nationalise text-books for schools, was intending to publish them through the Tamil Nadu Text Books Corporation pursuant to which it had issued the impugned D.O. letter. The writ petitions which are the subject matter of these appeals raise similar grounds and we will adopt the averments in writ petition No. 768/70 as being typical of the other writ petitions, which course was also adopted by the High Cour