JUDGMENT :

D.A. Desai, J.

Guru Nanak Khalsa High School ('School' for short) an aided school and hence governed by The Punjab Aided Schools (Security of Service) Act, 1969 ('1969 Act' for short) in its application to the Union territory of Chandigarh dispensed with the service of the Headmaster of the School, appellant Shri Manmohan Singh Jaitla, and the drawing teacher Amir Singh claiming to exercise power under an agreement executed by each of them with the management of the school. Admittedly, the school receives 95% of its expenses as grant from the Government and for contribution 5% of the expenses claims thoroughly arbitrary powers to be presently pointed out which appears to be anachronistic. The action of the Managing Committee of the school in dispensing with the services of both the aforementioned persons is questioned in these two matters on more or less identical grounds and therefore they were heard together and are being disposed of by this judgment.

In Re : C.A. No. 2137/84 :

2. Pursuant to an advertisement inviting application for the post of Headmaster of the School, appellant-Shri Manmohan Singh Jaitla applied for the same. He was interviewed on March 28, 1976 and on the same day by the order of the same date, he was offered the post of Headmaster in the school in the prescribed scale with usual allowances sanctioned by the Education Department, Chandigarh Administration for grant-in-aid Schools. The order of appointment provided that the appointee will be on probation for a period of one year and that he will be required to enter into an agreement with the school. The appellant accepted the appointment order and joined service. As required by the regulations of the Education Department of Chandigarh Administration, his appointment was subject to confirmation by the Director of Public Instruction. The confirmation was granted as per the order dated August 11, 1976. By the resolution of the Managing Committee of the School dated June 2, 1977, the appellant was confirmed with effect from May 1, 1977 in post as the Headmaster. In token of the appreciation of the outstanding performance of the appellant as Headmaster in the field of academic work/co-curricular activities and administration during the session 1980-81, he was awarded a certificate of honour by the Finance and Education Secretary, Union Territory of Chandigarh, on August 10, 1981. It appears that the term of the earlier Managing Committee expired and a new Managing Committee took over with effect from March 24,1982. On January 31, 1983, the Education Managing Committee of the school informed the appellant that his services were no longer required with effect from that very day i.e. January 1983 and in terms of Condition No. (iii) of the agreement entered into by him, he would cease to be in the employment of the school and was directed to hand over charge to Mrs. Gurcharan Kaur. The appellants application for relief to the Deputy Commissioner under sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the 1969 Act was turned down. After an unsuccessful appeal to the Commissioner, the appellant approached the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh under Article 227 of the Constitution. The High Court rejected the writ petition in limine but by a speaking order observing that as the school cannot be said to be 'other authority' under Article 12 of the Constitution, it was not amenable to the writ jurisdiction of the High Court. Hence this appeal by special leave.

In Re : W.P. No. 11238/83 :

3. Petitioner Amir Singh was appointed by the Managing Committee of the School on March 21, 1976 as a Drawing Teacher as per the appointment order No. 1265 dated March 21, 1976. This appointment was made upon an application made by the petitioner and after he was interviewed by the concerned committee of the school. The appointment order spells out some of the conditions of appointment, one of them may be noticed. The appointee had to enter into an agreement with the management of the