The court held that the provisions of the Madras Private Educational Institutions (Regulation) Act, 1966, except for Section 28, were not unreasonable or arbitrary and did not violate Articles 19(1)(g) and 14 of the Constitution. The court also held that Section 28 of the Act, which allowed the Government to make orders to remove any difficulty or doubt in giving effect to the provisions of the Act, amounted to an impermissible delegation of legislative power.

K. VEERASWAMI, C.J.:- This group of petitions under Art.226 of the Constitution is concerned with the validity of some of the provisions of the Madras Private Educational Institutions (Regulation) Act 1966. It is said that they violate Articles 19(1)(g) and 14 of the Constitution. We may take W.P.3818 of 1968 as an example. The petitioner describes himself as the managing partner of a registered partnership firm under the name and style of the Minerva Tutorial College, Halls Road, Madras. He is also stated to be the proprietor and Principal of the Tutorial College. His prayer is for a rule directing the respondent, the State of Madras, from enforcing the provisions of the Act against the College. It is said to have been established in about 1931 to coach students who have failed in their University examinations as private candidates. Two sessions in a year are held, one from June to September, and the other from the middle of November to March, to enable the candidates to appear for one or the other of the two University examinations during a year. Coaching is given to failed College students, including Science students, for whose benefit there is a well equipped laboratory, and a separate section for the S.S.L.C. students has also been added. The tutorial college has on its staff, several qualified teachers some of whom are retired persons and some of whom also work as part time hands. There is a hostel attached to the College for the benefit of students who have no homes of their own in Madras and the boarders numbered about 239 during the last session in 1968. As many as 49331 students had been trained down the years, and enabled to pass their examinations, several with distinctions and first classes, and thus the college has been serving a real public need. The College does not get any grant or aid from the Government, or any other public body, and is maintained entirely by the fees received from the students, and there has been no complaint whatever from any student, or his parent, or from any other quarter about the management of the College in any manner. The petitioner adds that in the State of Madras, there are over 400 private institutions like his institution, excluding private medical institutions. On the legal submissions the petitioner makes, which we will presently notice, he wants the Act to be struck down as violative of his fundamental right under Arts.19 and 14. The counter-affidavit filed by the Secretary to Government, Education Dept. on behalf of the State, mainly deals with the petitioner's legal submissions in answer.

2. The Madras Private Educational Institutions (Regulation) Act, hereafter referred to as the Act, was enacted by the State Legislature in 1966, received the assent of the President on 19-1-1967, and was published in the Fort St. George Gazette on 25-1-1967. In accordance with Section 1(4), the Act came into force on 21-5-1968, pursuant to a notification published on that date. The Act is intended to provide for the regulation of certain unrecognised private educational, institutions in the Tamil Nadu State. By Section 1(3)(b), the Act is applied only to certain private educational institutions specified in this provision, that is to say, any private educational institution having at any time more than 50 students on its rolls, in case it imparts technical education, or 100 students on its rolls in any other case or six thousand rupees as its annual receipts. But Sections 5 and 9 apply to every private educational institution. Any educational institution maintained, recognised or approved by or under authority from the Government or maintained or approved by, or affiliated to, any University established by law, or imparting medical education are excluded from the purview of the Act. A private educational institution has been defined to mean, any college, school or other institution, whether or not called a tutorial college, school or institution or training centre established and r