In this batch of writ petitions, the petitioners are the Managers and Parent Teacher Associations of various aided schools within the State of Kerala. Consequent to the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 [hereinafter referred to as the 'RTE Act'], and in exercise of the powers conferred on it under the said Act, the State Government has framed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2011 [hereinafter referred to as the 'RTE Rules']. The petitioners seek a direction to the State Government to pass orders upgrading their existing schools so as to bring within their fold additional classes (Standard V in the case of existing Lower Primary Schools and Standard 8 in the case of existing Upper Primary Schools). It is revealed from the pleadings in the writ petitions that the petitioners have all preferred applications before the State Government for the said purpose and that the said applications, though in the form prescribed under the RTE rules, do not contain the recommendation/countersignature of the educational authority concerned, which is a mandatory requirement under the Rules to maintain an application.

2. Rather than disposing these writ petitions with a direction to the State Government to consider and pass orders on the individual applications preferred by the various applicants, I feel it would be prudent to first examine the basic obligations that are required of the State Government under the RTE Act and Rules and ascertain the steps that the State Government has taken thus far to comply with its obligations under the Act. I am of the view that unless the State Government puts in place the necessary machinery that is required for the purposes of implementing the provisions of the Act and Rules, it would be an exercise in futility to direct the State Government to process the individual applications seeking up gradation of existing schools. The endeavour of this court therefore, is to first ascertain the steps that are to be taken by the State Government in terms of the Act and Rules, then to ascertain what steps have been taken thus far, and then to determine the time required for completing the said exercise. Needless to say, a time limit will have to be set for attaining the various stages up to completion of the entire exercise of setting up the necessary machinery so that the State will be in a position to consider the applications for upgradation immediately thereafter, at any rate before the commencement of the next academic year.

3. On a perusal of the provisions of the RTE Act and Rules framed there under, it is clear that for the satisfactory discharge of its obligations under the Act, the State Government is obliged to do the following in connection with the setting up of the necessary infrastructure for imparting elementary education:

(i) Collect data regarding children up to the age of 14 years within the State of Kerala.

(ii) Identify an authority that will analyse the said data so as to earmark the areas where the children reside. The demarcation of areas would have to be aligned with the territorial limits of a local authority, and the number of children who are beneficiaries under the Act, and who reside in the said area, would represent the educational need of that area.

(iii) An inventory will then have to be drawn up, of the existing schools within each demarked area, and a study done to ascertain the infrastructural availability in the said schools. Any deficit noticed in servicing the educational need of a particular area, using the existing infrastructural availability, would then have to be remedied through the introduction of new infrastructure brought about either by establishing new schools or by upgrading existing schools in that area.

(iv) Necessary yardsticks/criteria will have to be formulated so as to determine the manner of choosing an existing school in a given area that will be considered for upgrading. While for