( 1 ) THESE writ petitions raise a common question as to the power of the State Government to fix or regulate the collection of tuition and other fees from the pupil studying in respective schools. The Constitution of India has given unto ourselves Article 45 declaring that the State shall endeavour that education up to the age of 14 years shall be free. Apparently, in order to make this Constitutional guarantee more meaningful, the Government of Karnataka after enacting the Education Act, 1984, had constituted a Committee to recommended further steps to achieve the object. It is seen from W. P. No. 18061/2000 and connected cases the extracts from the report of that Committee headed by Hon'ble Justice Chinnappa Reddy has been copiously referred to. In order to appreciate the gravity of the situation, a reference to the part of the report herein will be useful. The following part of the report has been extracted in the W. P. :"in regard to compulsory primary education, there is already in force a Karnataka Compulsory Primary Education Act. But, clearly the Act is not properly implemented. The will to implement the Act appears to be lacking. To my shock, I discov