ORDER :

Pratap Krishna Lohra, J.

1. Petitioners, 19 in number, are the private unaided educational institutions imparting school education of different standards and affiliated with either Central Board of Secondary Education or Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education. The affairs of these schools are administered/managed by the societies registered under Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, 1958. By these writ petitions, on their behalf challenge is laid to validity of Rajasthan Schools (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2016 (for short, 'Act') with emphasis and focus on Sections 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15 & 16 of the Act and Rules 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 11 of the Rajasthan Schools (Regulation of Fee) Rules, 2017 (for short, 'Rules').

2. In order to assail vires of the impugned provisions of the Act and the Rules, the petitioners have boosted the standard of education imparted by them besides infrastructural facilities and other comforts offered to the students. Petitioners, in general, have highlighted efficient teachers employed in their institutions and some of the special features including well equipped library, playgrounds, skill development programmes etc., which according to them is not available in Govt. Schools. Buttressing their afflictions against the impugned provisions of the Act and the Rules, all the petitioners in unison have categorized them violative of Act 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. As per petitioners, impugned provisions have infringed their sacrosanct fundamental right to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.

3. For castigating the impugned provisions, petitioners have set out a case that the restrictions/measures and its enforcement methodology envisaged therein are arbitrary and unreasonable affecting their autonomy to the hilt. Substantially, in the pleadings and grounds set out for espousing their cause, petitioners have questioned validity of impugned provisions as not being satisfying the restrictive requirements envisaged under Article 19(6) of the Constitution. An attempt is also made by the petitioners to find fault with the impugned provisions on the anvil of Article 13(2) of the Constitution as being in clear negation of Part III of the Constitution. Composition of School Level Fee Committee, power of inspection bestowed on the officials of the Education Department, proposed coercive actions and penal provisions in the impugned provisions are also challenged by the petitioners as arbitrary and abhorrent. The petitioners have perceived impugned provisions an attempt by the State to control their institutions in the guise of so called profiteering and commercialization of education without any semblance of proof in this regard.

4. Omission to mention profiteering or capitation fee in the statement of objects and reasons for the promulgation of the Act and under Sections 6 & 8 of the Act too is emphasized in the pleadings by the petitioners to question the very object and purpose of the enactment. According to the petitioners, if the State is not keen to address these two grey areas, then the very purpose of the Act is under cloud and on this count also impugned provisions are bad as being promulgated without spelling out or clarifying objects sought to be achieved. A reference about earlier legislation Rajasthan Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2013 also finds mention in the writ petitions besides its challenge before this Court and grant of interim order. Attacking impugned Act and the aforementioned provisions with the aid of pejoratives, petitioners have also relied on some of the judgments of the Apex Court. With all these facts and grounds, petitioners have craved for declaring impugned provisions ultra vires and striking down the same.

5. Respondent State has submitted its counter to refute all the factual averments and grounds. Defending the impugned provisions of the Act and the Rules, State has meticulously pleaded in its return the basic aims and object