IMPORTANT POINT
No recognised school or an existing class in school, except an unaided minority school, shall be closed without offering full justification and without prior approval of Director – Question of absorption only arises when closure of school is done in accordance with law.

JUDGMENT :

Mehta, J.

1. Heard.

2. These appeals filed by New Delhi Municipal Council¹[Civil Appeal No(s). 7440-7441 of 2012] (hereinafter being referred to as ‘NDMC’) and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee²[Civil Appeal No(s). 7442-7444 of 2012] (hereinafter being referred to as ‘DSGMC’) arise out of a common judgment dated 9th December, 2009 passed by the High Court of Delhi in Letters Patent Appeal Nos. 441 and 442 of 2009 and hence, they have been heard and are being decided together.

Civil Appeal Nos. 7442-7444 of 2012

3. Facts in a nutshell relevant and essential for disposal of the appeals are noted hereinbelow.

4. The appellant-DSGMC was managing and operating a school, namely, Khalsa Boys Primary School (in short ‘school’), constructed by it in the premises of the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, New Delhi. The school was initially started with 130 students, five teachers including the Headmistress, 2 peons and one helper. The school was receiving 95% grant from the NDMC and remaining 5% contribution was made by the appellant-DSGMC towards the budget of the school. Respondents No. 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8 were employed as the Headmistress, Assistant Teacher, Water Women, Sweeper-cum-Chowkidar, Chowkidar, respectively in the school.

5. It is claimed that over a period of time, the building of the school became old and dilapidated and also, considering the growing number of devotees visiting the Gurudwara, the appellant- DSGMC was finding it difficult to run the school on a day-to-day basis. The appellant-DSGMC, therefore, decided to shift the school from its existing location to a new premises i.e. at Mata Sundari College, Old Building, New Delhi. Since the school was receiving 95% grant from the NDMC, the appellant-DSGMC moved the NDMC seeking permission to shift the school.

6. Upon receiving information about the proposed shifting of the school by the appellant-DSGMC, the Headmistress and other staff of the school challenged the said proposal by filing Writ Petitions³[WP(C) Nos. 9951-52/2005] in the High Court of Delhi. An ex-parte stay order dated 30th May, 2005 was passed by the learned Single Judge of High Court of Delhi, staying the proposed shifting of the school. However, in spite of the stay order being granted and having been communicated, the appellant-DSGMC demolished a substantial part of the school building thereby, making it non-functional. Consequent to the demolition of the school building, the NDMC stopped the grant-inaid under Rule 69 of the Delhi Education Act and Rules, 1973 (hereinafter after being referred to as ‘Delhi Education Rules’) on the reasoning that it was under an obligation to provide grant-inaid to schools which fell within its territorial jurisdiction and that the alternate location selected by the appellant-DSGMC, i.e., Mata Sundari College was outside the jurisdiction of the NDMC.

7. The High Court of Delhi disposed of the above writ petitions vide order dated 6th October, 2005 with a direction to the NDMC to consider and decide within four weeks as to whether ex-post facto sanction could be granted to the appellant-DSGMC to close down the school since the same was being shifted to an area which was outside the jurisdiction of the NDMC, thus, the shifting could lead to the closure of the school. Following the direction given by the High Court, the NDMC issued an order dated 14th February, 2006 whereby, it invoked Rule 55(1) of the Delhi Education Rules and noted that ex-post facto sanction could not be granted for running the school at the Mata Sundari College because it fell beyond its jurisdiction and consequently, it was decided to withdraw the recognition and to stop the grant-in-aid to the school being run by the appellant-DSGMC.

8. The teaching as well as non-teaching staff of the school filed fresh writ petitions⁴[WP(C) Nos. 13044-55/2006] in the High Court of Delhi, seeking a direction for absorption in a NDMC/Government aided school and also to command the appellant-DSGMC to pay them the salari