No minorities can maintain educational institutions on their own.

AR. LAKSHMANAN, J.

The State is the appellant in this appeal. Aggrieved by the order passed by Janardhanam, J., dated 17-3-1994 in W.P. No. 3494 of 1992, this writ Appeal has been filed by the State.

2. Para 7 of the order impugned in this appeal reads thus :-

"7. Various questions now posed for consideration in the present action relatable to sanction of teaching and non-teaching staff, financial aid and recognition relatable to minority institutions came up for consideration before me in the case of Rev. Sr. Margaret May v. Government of Tamil Nadu, (1993 II MLJ 303). Applying the ratio laid down in the aforesaid decision, it goes without saying that this writ petition will have to be allowed and the same is accordingly allowed as prayed for. There shall, however, be no order as to costs, in the circumstances of the case." *

In this case, there is no dispute that the respondent sangam which is a registered society is a minority institution. The said sangam is running a Girls' High School at Tirunelveli and they applied for grant of recognition and approval for standards 6 to 9 to the Joint Director of School Education, Madras, who in turn in his proceedings dated 21-8-90, granted temporary recognition and approval for standards 6 to 8 from 1-6-98 to 31-10-90 with aid and for 9th standard without aid. The school also applied for recognition for 10th standard and the second respondent in its proceedings dated 12-12-90, granted recognition and approval for the same without aid for the period from 1-6-89 to 31-10-91. However, on a scrutiny of the records, it is found that by mistake, recognition with aid for standards 6 to 8 was granted and by the proceedings of the 2nd respondent dated 5-2-92, the mistake was rectified by issuing an erratum to the earlier proceedings of the Joint Director of School Education (Secondary Education) D.Dis. No. 36196/G2/90 dated 21-8-90 to the effect that standards VI to VIII is also granted recognition without aid in addition to recognition without aid for standard IX. Aggrieved by the said order, the school filed the present action praying for issue of a writ of certiorarified mandamus to quash the same and consequently to direct the respondent to sanction teaching and non-teaching staff and also financial aid for the period from 1-6-1988 for the standards 6 to 9 and from 1-6-89 for standard-10 and sanction recognition for 6 to 9th standard for the period from 1-11-90 to 31-10-1991, during the pendency of the writ petition, the management filed certain W.M.Ps. for issuance of a direction to sanction teaching and non-teaching staff and also for financial aid for the period in question. This Court passed certain orders granting aid and later modified the said order when clarification was sought for by the school.

3. Counter affidavit was filed on behalf of the state contending that as a policy decision, recognition has been given to schools both minority and non-minority without aid, due to financial constraints the Government had been facing, that somehow or other, due to inadvertance, recognition had been granted to the petitioner-school with aid to standards VI to VIII by order dated 21-8-90, that such mistake having been found out subsequently, had been rectified by issuance of an erratum dated 5-2-1992. In such circumstances, the writ petition deserves to be dismissed.

4. Janardhanam, J., following his own judgment reported in Rev. Sr. Margaret Mary v. Government of Tamil Nadu, (1993) 2 Mad LJ 303, allowed the writ petition as prayed for.

5. On 19-7-1996, the Writ Appeal was admitted by the First Bench of this Court, when the writ appeal was taken up for disposal, Mr. Tulasiraman, learned Special Govt., Pleader (Education) raised the following four points :

1. The learned single Judge has not followed provisions of section 14 (I) and (II) of the Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools Regulation Act.

2. It is for the Government to decide, subject to the availability of the funds in the norms