JUDGMENT

Deepak Gupta, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 29th March, 2016 whereby the Writ Appeal No.669 of 2016 filed by the appellant herein was dismissed and the judgment dated 22nd February, 2016 of the learned Single Judge in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 20027 of 2015, filed by the respondent No.1 herein was allowed.

3. The undisputed facts are that the appellant school was a junior primary school up to the level of Class IV. Vide order dated 16th June, 2015 the appellant school was upgraded to the level of upper primary school i.e. it was permitted to run from Class V to Class VIII also. The order of the government dated 16th June, 2015 permitting the school to be upgraded was challenged by respondent No.1, who is the Manager of a school being run in the vicinity. The main ground of challenge was that the procedure prescribed under the Kerala Education Rules, 1959 (for short ‘KER’), had not been followed and no notice was given to the schools in the vicinity to raise any objection with regard to the upgradation. The learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition mainly on the ground that the procedure prescribed in Rule 2 of Chapter V of