JUDGMENT - DHARMADHIKARI S.C., J.:---Can an institution which is permitted to open a secondary school on permanent no grant basis claim grant in aid from the Government is the issue which arises for consideration in this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

2.The petitioner is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act as also Bombay Public Trust Act which is managing and administering the petitioner No. 3, (hereinafter for short referred to as the said "School"). The petitioner seeks a direction from this Court to the respondents to sanction grant in aid for its secondary section. The entitlement of the petitioner depends upon our answer to the aforesaid question.

3.It is not in dispute that the third respondent, Dy. Director of Education, Government of Maharashtra, Nashik by a letter (Exh. A) dated 26th August, 1975 granted permission to the petitioner to open new secondary school on permanent no grant in aid basis. The said letter reads as under :

"Under instruction received from the Government of Maharashtra under letter No. SSN-3874/2003(iii)/E, dated 12th July, 1975 permission is hereby granted to you to open New Secondary Schools permanently on no Grant-in-aid basis as shown in statement attached herewith, on fulfilment of usual conditions. It may please be noted that you will not be paid grant-in-aid or E.R.C. concession at any time in future and you are therefore, requested to submit through E.O.Z.P. of your District undertaking to that effect that you will not claim any Government Grants or E.R.C. concession on permanent basis. The undertaking must be signed by president and the office bearers of the management. Please note."

4.It is not in dispute that the undertaking as sought by the respondent came to be duly executed by the President and office bearers of the petitioner No. 1.

5.The petitioner further submits that it is imparting education in both primary as well as secondary section with English language as medium of instruction in the said school. The petitioners contend that respondent No. 1 took a policy decision in the year 1975 not to give grant in aid to any school which is started with English as medium of instruction and in pursuance of the said policy no grant in aid has been sanctioned by the respondents to any school imparting education with medium of instruction as English, whether such recognition was granted on or after the year 1975.

6.It is submitted by the petitioners that they have about 3000 students in primary section and about 1110 in secondary section. Teaching strength and the non-teaching staff is mentioned in para 6 of the petition. It is contended that at the material time, the Maharashtra Employees in Private Schools (Conditions of Service) Regulation Act, (hereinafter for short referred to as "MEPS Act") was not enacted and there were no statutory rules governing scale of pay and allowances payable to the employees of unaided school. It is pointed out that the Secondary Schools Code (for short SS Code) contained administrative instructions from the Government to the departmental staff for guidance and the said provisions were held by the Supreme Court to be mere administrative instructions and confer no right on anybody concerned.

7.It is contended that during the course of time, the petitioners institution achieved high degree of efficiency and reputation and the members of the teaching and non teaching staff were being paid salary and allowances much more than other private schools in Dombivili area. After referring to the provisions of MEPS Act and Rules framed thereunder, it is contended that the pay and allowances of the teaching and non teaching staff was increased and, therefore, about 54 members of the teaching and non teaching staff filed a writ petition in this Court for an order and direction to the respondents to compel the petitioners herein to make payment of salaries as per the rules framed under the MEPS Act. The result of the petition was t

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