FGJudgment

BHAGWATI, J.:- The petitioner carries on business of printing, publishing and selling text books for use in Primary, Middle Schools and Higher Secondary classes in schools in the State of Madhya Pradesh. On 1st November, 1956; as a result of the reorganization of States under the States Reorganization Act, 1956, a new State of Madhya Pradesh was formed comprising of the territories of the existing State of Madhya Pradesh known as Mahakoshal area, the territories of the existing State of Madhya Bharat, excluding Sunal Tappa, Sironj Sub-Division on Kotah District in the existing State of Rajasthan and the territories of the existing States of Bhopal and Vindhya Pradesh. We are concerned in this petition mainly with Makakoshal and Madhya Bharat regions of the State of Madhya Pradesh and we shall, therefore, so far as any reference to the position obtaining prior to the reorganisation of the States is concerned, confine our attention only to those two regions. The school education in the State of Madhya Pradesh, and prior to the reorganization of the States, in the Mahakoshal and Madhya Bharat regions, has always been divided structurally in three stages, namely, Primary, Middle school and Higher Secondary. Primary education consists of classes I to V, Middle school, of classes VI of VIII and Higher Secondary, of classes IX to XI. Primary and Middle school education may be considered together, for, barring a short period up to the enactment of the Madhya Pradesh Secondary Education Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as the Act of 1959), when Middle school education was clubbed together with Higher Secondary education and was treated differently from Primary education, Middle School Education has always been treated on the same basis of Primary Education in contrast to Higher Secondary Education. It is not necessary for the purpose of the present petition to trace the history of the regulation of Primary and Middle School Education from the inception. It would be sufficient to state that Primary Education at all times and Middle School Education, so far as Mahakoshal region is concerned, after the enactment of the act of 1959, and in other regions even before that time, were regulated by the State Government. The State Government prescribed the courses of instruction any syllabi for all classes of Primary and Middle School Education and they were followed not only by Government Schools but also by private schools, not because of any statutory authority, but because most of the private schools depended on grant-in aid from the State Government and unless the courses of instruction and syllabi prescribed by the State Government were followed by them, they would not be recognized by the Board of Secondary Education so as to be able to present their students for the examination to be held by the Board a sine qua non for admission to a University - unless their Primary and Middle School sections were recognized by the State Government. So far as the text books for use in Primary and Middle School classes were concerned, the State Government prescribed 29 text books printed and published by it on different subjects for use in difference classes. There was, of course, no statutory provision under which these 29 text books could be prescribed by the State Government and the prescription of these 29 text books had, therefore, no statutory authority but private schools, no less than Government schools, accepted these 29 text books because non-acceptance would have involved stoppage of grant-in-aid from the State Government. In the meantime a Society called the Madhya Pradesh Pathya Pustak Rachna Avam Shaikshinik Anusandhan Nigam (hereinafter referred to as the Text Books Corpn.) was formed by the State Government for the purpose of carrying on the work of printing, publishing and distributing text books for use in the Primary and Middle School classes in the State of Madhya Pradesh. The Minister incharge of the portfolio of educati