1. The petitioner is the manager of an aided upper primary school at Shoranur. The school was originally started by the petitioner's grand-father more than 60 years ago. After the death of the founder the petitioner's father succeeded him as the manager of the school. He died in June 1966 when the petitioner was only 19 years old. In spite of his young age the petitioner had to take up the responsibility of administering the school as its manager and he took over the said burden. It would appear that the petitioner found it difficult to properly look after the management of the school, especially in view of the fact that he was not keeping normal health and was unable to move out freely on account of some defect in his knee joints. Hence on 27 51971 he addressed a letter Ext. P1 to the Director of Public Instruction, Trivandrum (2nd respondent) intimating the latter about the petitioner's intention to close down this school with effect from the academic year 1972-73. It was expressly mentioned in Ex. P1 that the notice was being given by him as per R.24 of Chapter V of the Kerala Education Rules. The petitioner's case is that he did not receive any reply from the 2nd re