The right to administer an educational institution established by a minority is not absolute and can be made subject to reasonable regulations for the benefit of the institution as a vehicle of educational character and the standard of such institutions and ensure orderly, efficient and sound administration and to prevent mal-administration, to ensure that its funds are spent for the betterment of education and not for extraneous considerations and to prevent any anti-national activity being carried out in such an institution or any such activity which is against law or morality.

Raju, J.

1. These batches of cases, some writ petitions as well as writ appeals, are taken up for consideration together since they involve identical questions of law and common submissions have been made by counsel appearing on either side. The consideration of some of these cases individually on merits will ultimetely depend upon the decision that we render on the legal issues.

2. The constitutional validity of Sections 2(7), 11, 24(3) and 32 of the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Act, 1976 is being questioned by the respective petitioners in the above proceedings. The facts that all the educational institutions involved in the these proceedings are minority institutions and they get 100% State aid in respect of teaching grant and 80% in respect of non-teaching grant and all of them are affiliated to one or the other Universities within the State of Tamil Nadu are beyond controversy.

3. The Government of Tamil Nadu decided to regulate the conditions of service of teachers employed in private colleges and to make the necessary law relating to the managing bodies and of payment of grants to such colleges by means of an appropriate statute. As prelude, the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Ordinance, 1975 was promulgated on 21st November, 1975. The said Ordinance was modelled upon the Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 1973, hereinafter referred to as the Schools Act with appropriate and required modification to suit the institutions (colleges) dealt with under the Ordinance. Sub-sequently, due to certain supervening circumstances and the imposition of the President's Rule in the State, the Governor of Tamil Nadu, by virtue of the powers delegated to him by the President of India, promulgated the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Ordinance, 1976 with some modifications to make certain provisions of the Ordinance inapplicable to minority colleges. It will be relevant to point out at this stage that those modifications came to be effected in the light of the judgment of a Division Bench of this Court in a batch of writ petitions, W.P. No. 4478 of 1974 etc., dated 17th December, 1975 whereunder the constitutional validity of some of the provisions in the Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 1973 in their application to the minority educational institutions in the State came to be considered and the Division Bench held that the provisions of Sections 8(1) (a), 11(1) (b), Rules 7, 9 except Clauses (e) and (k) of sub-rule (2), 10 to 14, 16 to 18 and 22 to 24 made thereunder are inapplicable to minority schools in the State. Thereafter, in due course, the said Ordinance No. 11 of 1976 was replaced by the President's Act, namely, the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Act, 1976, some of the provisions of which are under our consideration presently. The Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Rules, 1976 were also made and brought into force for effectively enforcing the provisions of the Act.

4. It is necessary at this stage to refer to the provisions under challenge as well as certain other inter-related provisions thereto before actually proceeding to consider and determined the issues raised in these cases. Section 2(8) defines "private college" to mean a college maintained by an educational agency and approved by, or affiliated to, a university but does not include a college established or administered or maintained by the Central Government or the State Government or any local authority or any university imparting religious instruction alone but not any other instructions. An educational agency in relation to any minority college is defined under Sec. 2(4) to mean any person who, or body of persons which, had established and is administering or proposes to established and administer such minority college and in respect of any other private college to mean any person or body of person permitted or deemed to be permitted under the Act to establish and main