P.V. ASHA, J.

1. The amendment brought about to the Kerala Education Rules, 1958 ('KER' for short) by way of the Kerala Education (Amendment Rules), 2016 issued in G.O(P)No.199/2016/G.Edn. dated 3.12.2016 is under challenge in these writ petitions filed by Managers of various educational agencies. The amended rules came into force w.e.f 29.1.2016. Amendment has been made to the provisions contained in Chapter XXI of K.E.R, substituting Rule 7 and to Chapter XXIII K.E.R substituting some of the entries in Rule 1, inserting an entry in Rule 5 and inserting Rule 14 A. The explanatory note to the amendment states that it became necessary to impose a condition on the Managers of all aided schools, to appoint fully qualified teachers from among the list of protected teachers; it became necessary to extend the staff fixation for a particular year to the subsequent year. In order to meet those situations, necessary provisions are incorporated in the statute while insisting that the educational officers have to verify the strength of people based on UID verification. As the issue arising in all these cases is one and the same, all these cases were heard together and are being dispo