IMPORTANT POINT
Menace of bogus admissions in Kerala.

Judgment :-

K.S. Radhakrishnan, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. We are in this appeal concerned with the question whether the High Court was justified in directing the Secretary, General Education Department of the State of Kerala to get the verification of the actual students’ strength in all the aided schools in the State with the assistance of the police and to take appropriate action.

3. The Assistant Educational Officer (AEO), Valappad had fixed the staff strength of S.N.V.U.P. School, Thalikulam for the year 2008-09 based on the visit report of High School Association (SS), GHS Kodakara as per Rule 12 of Chapter XXIII of Kerala Education Rules (KER). Later, based on a complaint regarding bogus admissions and irregular fixation of staff for the year 2008-09 by the AEO, the Super Check Cell, Malabar Region, Kozhikode made a surprise visit in the school on 17.09.2008 and physically verified the strength of the students and noticed undue shortage of attendance on that day. The strength verified by the Super Check Cell was not sufficient for allowing the divisions and posts sanctioned by the AEO. The Head Master of the School, however, stated in writing that the shortfall of attendance on the day of inspection was due to “Badar Day” of Muslim community and due to distribution of rice consequent to that. In order to confirm the genuineness of the facts stated by the Head Master, the Cell again visited the school on 16.12.2008. Verification could not be done on that day, hence the Cell again visited the school on 02.02.2009 and physically verified the students’ strength. On that day also, there were large number of absentees as noticed on 17.09.2008. On verification of attendance register, it was found that the class teachers of respective classes had given bogus presence to all students on almost all the days. Enquiry revealed that the school authorities had obtained the staff fixation order for the year 2008-09 through bogus recordical admissions.

4. The Director of Public Instructions (DPI), Thiruvananthapuram consequently issued a notice dated 07.05.2009 to the Manager of the School of his proposal to revise roll strength and revision of staff strength by reducing one division each in Std. I, II, IV to VII and 2 divisions in Std. III and consequent posts of 5 LPSAs, 3 UPSAs in the school during the year 2008-09. The Manager of the school responded to the notice vide representation dated 27.05.2009 stating that Super Check Officials did not record the attendance particulars of the students in the visit record and had tampered with the attendance register. The Manager had also pointed out that the Headmaster was not responsible to compensate the loss suffered by the Department by way of paying salary to the teachers who had worked in the sanctioned posts. Further, it was also pointed out that the staff fixation should not be done within the academic year and re-fixation was not permissible as per Rule 12E(3) read with Rule 16 of Chapter XXIII, KER and requested not to reduce the class divisions.

5. The DPI elaborately heard the lawyers appearing for the Headmaster and the Manager of the school, affected teachers as well as the officials of the Super Check Cell. Having heard the submissions made and perusing the records made available, the DPI found that the staff fixation of the school for the year 2008-09 was obtained through bogus admissions and misrepresentation of facts. DPI noticed that the roll strength during the year 2008-09 was 1196. There were 404 absentees on the first visit of the Cell on 17.09.2008. The Super Check Cell again visited the school on 16.12.2008 and 02.02.2009 and it was found that among 404 students absent on the first day, 179 names were bogus and irregular retentions. The physical presence of 179 students could not be verified on all the three occasions. DPI, therefore, passed an order revising the staff fixation of the school for the year 2008-09 as per Rule 12(3) read with Rule 16 of Chapter XXIII of KER. Con