Point of Law: Government of Kerala will remit the applicable Scholarship amount to students whose Annual Family Income is Rs.2,50,000/- or less into their designated accounts; but will ensure, through a properly constituted mechanism, that said amounts are paid by them into accounts of Colleges/Managements within a period of one week or so thereafter.

JUDGMENT :

[WP(C) Nos.16839/2022, 18797/2022, 20037/2022]

Various Associations of Managements of Medical and Dental Colleges have filed these three writ petitions, impelling identical factual assertions and seeking similar reliefs.

2. I, therefore, propose to dispose of all these matters together through this judgment; and for the sake of convenience, W.P.(C)No.16839/2022 will be treated as the lead case and all documents and parties reflected in this judgment will be as mentioned therein, unless otherwise specified.

3. I have heard Sri.Kurian George Kannanthanam – learned Senior Counsel, instructed by Sri.P.M.Saneer appearing for the petitioners in these cases; Sri.S.Manu – learned Assistant Solicitor General for the Union of India and Smt.Latha Thankappan – learned Special Government Pleader.

4. The controversy in these writ petitions is in an extremely confined purlieus.

5. The petitioners, who assert to be the Associations of Managements of Medical and Dental Colleges, say that Government of Kerala, in conjunction with the Government of India, is offering Post Matric Scholarships to the students belonging to Scheduled Castes for their studies.

6. The petitioners contend that certain fixed sums, as per the criterion under the Scholarship Scheme are paid to the students directly, by making credit into their designated Bank Accounts; but that, many a time, these are not transferred by them to the account of the Colleges and thus misappropriated or used for their own private purposes. They say that, therefore, they are being put to unnecessary prejudice and trouble and assert that this could have been easily rectified, had the Government of Kerala remitted the Scholarship Amounts directly into the account of the Managements, so as to avert the opportunity to misappropriate it, even temporarily.

7. When I heard Sri.Kurian George Kannanthanam – learned Senior Counsel, on the afore lines, I asked Smt.Latha Thankappan – learned Special Government Pleader, about it, to which she replied, saying that going by the Scheme of Scholarship – a copy of which is on record as Ext.P5 – Government of India shoulders 60% of the same and have placed a specific condition that same shall be remitted only into the account of the students and not to that of the Managements. She submitted that, therefore, if the Government of Kerala violates this, then Government of India will withdraw their responsibility under the Scheme and that this would put every eligible student into great prejudice.

8. Sri.Kurian George Kannanthanam – learned Senior Counsel, at this time, intervened to point out that, in fact, Ext.P5 Scheme applies only to those students whose Annual Family Income from all sources does not exceed Rs.2,50,000/-. He submitted that this Scholarship has been offered to the other students also, who are having larger family income, which liability is shouldered by the Government of Kerala themselves; and therefore, that at least with respect to those students, Ext.P5 Scheme would not stand in the way of his clients' request being acceded to.

9. In reply, Smt.Latha Thankappan affirmed the afore, but submitted that this would give rise to two categories of students, one who receives the Scholarship into their designated accounts and the other who would obtain it only by credit into the account of the Managements. She submitted that she leaves it to this Court to take an apposite decision in this regard.

10. For the purpose of clarity and certainty on the afore aspects, I asked Sri.S.Manu – learned Assistant Solicitor General, whether Government of India would shoulder the responsibility under Ext.P5 Scheme even for a student whose Annual Family Income exceeds Rs.2,50,000/-; and whether they would consider the payment of Scholarship into the Bank Accounts of the Management, rather than being credited into the students' Accounts.

11. Sri.S.Manu responded, after obtaining instructions from the competent Authority, that Ext.P5 Scheme was propounded with great amoun