Point of Law: No Objection Certificate to run the minority educational institution can be granted either by the Competent Authority declared by the appropriate authority as per Section 10 or by the National Commission as per Section 11 of the Act, 2004.”

JUDGMENT :

What the petitioner has prayed is for issuance of direction to prohibit the respondents from including the name of the petitioner institution in the list of institutions eligible for granting admissions under the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. It is prayed to direct the authorities to remove the name of the petitioner from such list.

2. In other words, the petitioner Seventh Day Adventist Primary School wants to be absolved from the compliance of the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Right to the Education Act’) while granting admissions in primary section, contending that it is required to be treated as minority educational institution for primary section also.

3. As per the case of the petitioner, since its establishment in the year 1979 and having run the school at Ahmedabad recognised by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination, it has been imparting quality education. Petitioner society and its sister trusts functioning under the same management have been running several schools and colleges in different States, it was stated. The higher secondary school run by the petitioner at Ahmedabad is given certificate dated 21st May, 2013 as minority educational institution under Section 2(j) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004.

3.1 The issue about existence and availability of such minority educational institution status in respect of the primary school run by the petitioner arose when the District Education Officer, Ahmedabad addressed communication dated 10th August, 2020 asking the petitioner to furnish certificate including the proof that its primary section was recognised with minority status. As the petitioner did not and could not furnish the required information, another communication dated 13th August, 2020 was sent. By order dated 14th August, 2020, competent authority thereafter informed the petitioner that the petitioner school will have to grant admission to the students eligible under the Right to Free Education Act, 2009 in the admission process for the on-going academic year.

3.2 It is stated that petitioner filed Special Civil Application No.10045 of 2020 which was finally disposed of by order dated 03rd September, 2020. The Court required the petitioner to make application with regard to its primary section for issuance of no-objection certificate to be declared as minority educational institution. It was provided that necessary application shall be made before the Director of Primary Education which was the competent authority before 11th September, 2020 and the said authority was directed to decide the application within stipulated time. Necessary application was made by the petitioner on 11th September, 2020.

3.3 The request for grant of certificate for primary section made by the petitioner under Section 10 of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 came to be rejected as per communication dated 16th September, 2020. In the grounds of rejection order, it was stated that the constitution of the Trust did not show that it had the object of encouraging and developing the religious minority; secondly the members of the Trust had not produced the necessary certificates to show that they belonged to religious minority, and thirdly that it was not shown that school had permission to run standards 2 to 8.

3.4 The aforesaid order dated 16th September, 2020 was passed by the Director of Primary Education. The petitioner repeated its request before the Director of Education which again was turned down by communication dated 22nd September, 2020, recording even the additional grounds and thereby maintaining the aforementioned order dated 16th September, 2020 of the same office. It appears that by letter dated 17th September, 2020, the petitioner school submitted certain details stating that those details were in