JUDGMENT/ORDER

G.S.PATEL, J. - There is an Affidavit in Reply. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and the. Petition is taken up for hearing and final disposal.

2. The Petition is brought by five 11-year-old students through their parents and natural guardians. Respondent No. 1 is the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti. This is an autonomous organisation and throughout the country it operates and administers the Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme or project. The 2nd Respondent is the 1st Respondent's regional office. Respondent No. 3 is the local Vidyalaya in Taluka Rajapur, district Ratnagiri.

3. The five Petitioners say that they were students of Standard V in a school in Ratnagiri. They have given their addresses in Ratnagiri district. Their families, however, originally are from Kolhapur. As we shall see, some capital is sought to be made of this in opposition to the Petition.

4. From April 2020, across the globe, humankind fell into a state it had never encountered, or possibly never imagined could come to pass: isolation, confinement, sickness and death faced us in that unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. In August 2020, at a time when that condition continued in its intensity, and even