JUDGMENT :

Ajay Mohan Goel, J.

By way of this petition, the petitioner has approached this Court praying for the following reliefs:

“1. Quash the Notification dated 18.02.2026 ANNEXURE P-1 issued by the respondents regarding the merger of Government Girls Senior Secondary School Bharmour with Government Senior Secondary School Bharmour (Co-Education).

2. Direct the respondents to maintain Government Girls Senior Secondary School Bharmour as a separate institution.”

2. The petitioner, who claims to be a resident of village Bharmour, District Chamba, has filed this writ petition assailing Notification dated 18.02.2026 (Annexure P-1), in terms whereof Department of School Education, Himachal Pradesh, has ordered the merger of Government Girls Senior Secondary School with an existing co-educational school (Government Senior Secondary School), and thereby converting them into a single co-educational Government School, i.e. Government Senior Secondary School, Bharmour.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Bharmour, became functional in the year 1955 for the promotion and upliftment of girls’ education in Bharmour tribal region. He submitted that since then, the school was continuously functioning as a girls’ institution and has become a prestigious and important educational institution for the local community. He submitted that with an enrolment of more than 200 students in the said school, which had the complete paraphernalia available for the safe and supportive education of girl children, including playground, etc., the act of the respondents of merging this school with the other existing school and converting both of them into a single co-educational institution is bad in law.

4. Learned counsel argued that as a result of the merger of the said school with the main school, the safety of the girls would be compromised. He argued that the fact that there were more than 200 girls enrolled in the Government Girls Senior Secondary School demonstrated that girls were more comfortable in studying in an exclusively girls’ school and this extremely important aspect of the matter was ignored by the Department while issuing the impugned Notification qua the schools at Bharmour.

5. Learned counsel further argued that the conversion of said schools into a single co-educational institution shall dissuade the girls from joining the school. He submitted that as there was no cogent rationale behind the issuance of the impugned Notification, the present petition be allowed as prayed for and the act of the respondents of merging the Government Girls Senior Secondary School with the other existing school at Bharmour be quashed and set aside.

6. On the other hand, learned Additional Advocate General drew the attention of the Court to the reply filed by the State and submitted that the Notification in issue was issued by the Department in light of a decision taken by the Government with the desire to create a more inclusive and balanced educational environment and with the aim to prevent gender discrimination at the school level.

7. Learned Additional Advocate General argued that the new educational structure was expected to foster equality, mutual respect, and communication skills among students of all genders, and shall also prepare students for the diverse real-world environment beyond school premises, where collaboration among genders is a norm. He argued that the Notification itself was self-suggestive that the merger of schools was not confined to Bharmour only, but exercise was undertaken in other areas in the State as well, where schools were existing in close proximity.

8. Learned Additional Advocate General submitted that in the present case, the two schools were situated at a distance of merely 10 meters from each other and with the merger of the schools, the infrastructure of the girls’ school shall form part of the co-educational institution.

9. Learned Additional Advocate General argued that