Educational authorities must consider applications for school management approval despite internal disputes unless exceptional circumstances exist, as established by prior court rulings.

JUDGMENT :

ZIYAD RAHMAN A.A., J.

This Writ Petition is submitted by the petitioners being aggrieved by Exts. P4, P6 and P9 orders by which the applications submitted by the petitioners to appoint the 2^nd petitioner as the Manager of V.K.N.M.V.H.S.S., Vayyattupuzha, Pathanamthitta District was rejected. The 1^st petitioner is the President of Kerala Vellala Maha Sabha (KVMS) governed by Ext.P1 bye-laws approved by the Educational Authorities concerned. The 2^nd petitioner claims to be the duly elected President of the 1^st respondent.

2. The facts that led to the filing of the Writ Petition are as follows:

The 1^st petitioner-Society was formed with an objective to establish and run different educational institutions at various levels. As per Ext.P1 bye -laws, the President of the Society will be the Chairman of the Managing Committee of the 1^st petitioner-Society and as per Clause 7(h) of the said bye-laws, the Chairman of the Managing Committee will be the Manager of the educational institutions under the Society.

3. Earlier, one (Late) Punalur Madhu was appointed as the Manager of the school referred to above, on 10.04.2013 and his appointment was approved vide Ext.P2 order. Later, in the election conducted during the year, 2017, the 2^nd petitioner was elected as the President of the Society. Thereafter, the said Punalur Madhu and the 2^nd petitioner submitted a joint application, seeking approval of the 2^nd petitioner as the Manager of the School. Since there was a delay in considering the said application, the petitioners approached this Court by filing WP(C)No.29739/2021, which was disposed of as per Ext.P3, directing the 4^th respondent to consider the applications submitted by the petitioners in this regard. When the aforesaid writ petition came up for consideration, Ext.P3(a) interim order was also passed directing the Educational Authorities to grant user login credentials of the Samanwaya portal to the petitioners.

4. However, the application submitted by the petitioners was rejected by the 4^th respondent as per Ext.P4 order dated 16.12.2022 on the reason that, the term of the petitioner expired during March, 2019 and no election was conducted. Challenging Ext.P4 order, the petitioners filed an appeal before the 2^nd respondent as contemplated under Rule 4(3) Chapter III of K.E.R. The said appeal was considered by the 2^nd respondent and as per Ext.P6 order, the said appeal was rejected. In Ext.P6, the 2^nd respondent issued a further direction to the District Educational Officer to take over the management of the School, as according to the 2^nd respondent, there are several litigations between the members of the educational agency regarding the management of the school.

5. Challenging Ext.P6, a Revision Petition was filed by the 1^st respondent as contemplated under Rule 4(4), Chapter III of K.E.R. As there was delay in considering the said application, WP(C)No.2540/2024 was filed before this Court, which was disposed of as per Ext.P8 judgment. In Ext.P8 judgment, there was a specific direction to the 1^st respondent to pass orders after considering the documents produced as Exts.P8 to P12 produced therein. However, Ext.P9 order was passed by the 1^st respondent, rejecting the said Revision Petition on the reason that there are several disputes between the members of the educational society and several litigations are pending before the Civil Court. This Writ Petition was submitted by the petitioners challenging Exts.P4, Ext.P6 and P9 orders.

6. In the writ petition, it was specifically averred that, as against the results of the election conducted in the year, 2017 in which the 2^nd petitioner was appointed as the President, one of the members of the educational agency filed O.S.No.70/2017. In the meanwhile, the 5^th respondent in this writ petition and some other persons had convened a meeting on 25.5.2017 and declared themselves as the office bearers of this society and therefore O.S.No.90/2017 was submitted by the Society before the