Pushpa Sathyanarayana, J.

The law without justice is like the grain bereft of its fibre. For it is justice which like the fibre of the grain provides the texture that nourishes and sustains. Constitutional interpretation must likewise nourish and sustain.

2. Private Schools on warpath. The reason is an erosion of the autonomy of private schools. In the development of nation, post-independence India is attributable to the efforts of private schools. The implementation of Right to Education Act itself has aroused widespread indignation within the community of private school promoters. Many of them have invested their life-savings into educational institution bench-marked with the best.

3. Educational institutions both schools and colleges are organised by the Government, local bodies like Municipalities and Zilla Parishads, as also by the private organizations. The quality of education or learning outcome is integrally linked to the quality of teachers. Great teachers can make a huge difference to a child. But not every school has great teachers. There are many excellent teachers in India today and they have been doing a great job unsung and unnoticed for years. 50% children in urban India get admitted in private schools. Bearing in mind the implementation of the Right to Education Act, private unaided schools also have to admit minimum 25% students of their capacity from disadvantaged sections. While teachers' salaries in these schools are low, the pupil - teacher ratio is higher, since they hire more teachers. The issue before us in this matter revolves around the fixation of pay scales of the teachers of the unaided schools on par with the teachers working in Government schools. It is true, good teachers ought to be paid as well as other professions if not more. We need to ensure the salaries of good teachers are far higher than what they are now and figure out the ways to evaluate teacher performance. But the organisation of educational institutions in the private sector has been subject to regulation by the State in varying degrees from time to time. It may not be necessary to trace the entire history of such regulation by the State of the various educational institutions. The scales of pay and other conditions of service of teachers and other employees of the private schools may not necessarily compare favourably with those of their counterparts of the Government.

4. In view of the above reference, the question falls for our consideration is,

"Whether the obligation of the State to provide free and compulsory education, can force private educationists over which the Government has no administrative control to ensure equal pay for equal work?"

5. Pursuant to the conversion of Matriculation Schools to the control of Board of Matriculation Schools, the private Schools are guided by the Code of Regulations for Matriculation Schools [hereinafter referred to as 'the Code']. The fact remains that the appellant is an unaided Christian minority school established and administered by a society of Catholic nuns for which, indisputably, the recognition was obtained only on the basis of the said Code.

6. The ruling, which this Full Bench is called upon to render, is guided by pronouncements of the Hon'ble Apex Court. The verdicts of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, particularly, in the land mark cases like T.M.A. Pai Foundation and others v. State of Karnataka and others [2003(2) S.C.T. 385 : (2002) 8 SCC 481] and P.A. Inamdar and others v. State of Maharashtra and others [2005(3) S.C.T. 697 : (2005) 6 SCC 537], expanded the fundamental right conferred by Article 30(1) of the constitution of India upon all linguistic and religious minorities to "establish and administer educational institution of their choice" through transparent merit-based admission system and reasonable fees.

7. We are concerned about the regulatory guidelines of privately promoted educational institutions. After the VI Pay Commission raised the monthly remuneration of