Ramachandran Nair, J.

The rather strange and unusual dispute which we are called upon to resolve in these cases is between the Mother Superior of a Convent and the Vicar of a Church for the control of management of a High School, which was originally started in the year 1945 as a Girls High School and later converted into a mixed School for boys and girls. Since the issues raised in the connected Writ Appeals are consequential to the controversy in the main case, i.e.W.A.No.28/2011, we proceed to consider the said case first and the parties referred to herein are those arrayed in the said Writ Appeal, wherein the Mother Superior is the appellant and the Vicar is the first respondent.

2. The specific case of the appellant is that the Little Flower Girls High School was established by the Mother Superior of the Little Flower Convent under orders obtained from the Director of Public Instruction of the Princely State of Cochin in the year 1945. In fact the School was started in the first floor of the Convent building, where nuns are staying in the ground floor. School was started after acquiring land around the Convent in the course of time through several documents of purchase. Since nuns lead a secluded life, every convent has a chapel in it for the nuns to pray and the appellant's convent also has the facility. It is the usual practice that the Vicar of the nearby church goes for offering prayers in the chapel in the Convent and in the Convent he is called Chaplain. In those days of very limited facilities for communication and transport it was not possible or secure or practical for the Mother Superior of a Convent to function as Manager of the School. Therefore, the Mother Superior nominated the Chaplain i.e. the Vicar of the nearby St.Mary's Church, the first respondent herein, as the Manager of the Little Flower Girls High School, which was established by the Convent in it's own name. Having regard to the close association between the Convent and the Church, both working for promoting the common interest of the parishioners and the community, the system of Chaplain of the Chapel attached to the Convent, who is ex-officio Vicar of the St.Mary's Church, continued to function as the Manager of the Girls High School belonging to the Convent. This practice continued for several years and decades in that the Vicar / Chaplain posted successively continued to function as Manager of the Girls High School of the Convent. When the present incumbent got appointed as the Mother Superior, she wanted to revoke the nomination and replace the Vicar as Manager of the convent school. Accordingly, on the transfer of the then Vicar / Chaplain in early February 2008, the Mother Superior on 12/02/2008 requested the District Educational Officer to recognise her as the Manager of the School, which by that time had become a mixed High School, but still partly functioning in the first floor of the convent building itself. It is at this time, the appellant was informed by the educational officer that the first respondent, the Vicar of the Church had prepared a bye-law for the management of the School and got the same approved on 05/10/1971 from the Regional Deputy Director of Public Instruction, wherein the School is declared as one owned, managed and controlled by the St.Mary's Church. This order is produced in the Writ Petition filed by the first respondent as Ext.P1.

3. The appellant filed Ext.P2 petition before the Government on 02/04/2008 complaining that Ext.P1 is obtained by the first respondent without knowledge of the Convent and through fraud and manipulation, and therefore the Government being the highest authority under the Kerala Educational Act and the Rules, should declare Ext.P1 order of the Regional Deputy Director as illegal and unsustainable. The Government after hearing both sides and on verifying the records particularly title deeds of the land, tax receipts and other documents produced by the appellant found that the