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PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT
G.S.Singhvi and B.Rai JJ.
Association Of Private Educational Institutions (Regd)
Versus
Chandigarh Administration, U.T., Chandigarh
Civil Writ Petition No. 2529 of 1997,
Decided On : JULY 30, 1998
EDUCATION - RIGHT TO - SCOPE - TRAINING AND COACHING INSTITUTIONS - ALLOTMENT OF LAND - SCHEME FRAMED BY ADMINISTRATION - VALIDITY - WHETHER THE SCHEME IS ULTRA VIRES TO ARTICLE 14 OF THE CONSTITUTION - WHETHER THE DISTINCTION MADE BETWEEN RECOGNISED AND/OR AIDED INSTITUTIONS AND UNRECOGNISED, UNAFFILIATED AND UNAIDED INSTITUTIONS IS VALID - WHETHER THE SCHEME IS ARBITRARY AND UNREASONABLE BECAUSE IT DOES NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE INCREASE IN THE POPULATION OF CHANDIGARH AND THE PROPORTIONATE INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO SEEK ADMISSION IN VARIOUS COURSES, ACADEMIC AS WELL AS PROFESSIONAL - HELD, THE SCHEME IS VALID AND DOES NOT VIOLATE ARTICLE 14 OF THE CONSTITUTION.
Fact of the Case:
The petitioner, an association of private educational institutions operating in Chandigarh, challenged the notifications dated 31-1-1996 and 30-7-1996 as well as the advertisement Annexure P-5 issued by the respondents for allotment of land to the educational institutions (schools) on lease-hold basis. The petitioner prayed for quashing the notifications and advertisement and for issuance of a direction to the respondents to frame fresh scheme and allot plots of smaller sizes to the private educational institutions of Chandigarh.
Finding of the Court:
The Court held that the scheme framed by the Administration is not ultra vires to Article 14 of the Constitution. The distinction made between recognised and/or aided institutions and unrecognised, unaffiliated and unaided institutions is valid. The scheme is not arbitrary and unreasonable as it takes into account the increase in the population of Chandigarh and the proportionate increase in the number of students who seek admission in various courses, academic as well as professional.
Issues: 1. Whether the Scheme of 1996 is contrary to the order passed by the High Court on 27-9-1994 in Civil Writ Petition No. 4785 of 1991? 2. Whether treating of schools of various categories at par is arbitrary and discriminatory? 3. Whether reservation of sites for outside schools is arbitrary? 4. Whether the fixation of price is unreasonable and unconstitutional and 5. Whether a mandamus should be issued to the respondents to earmark more sites for the schools?
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The right to education is not an absolute right and its contents and parameters have to be determined in the light of Articles 45 and 41 of the Constitution. 2. The members of the petitioner association have the freedom to establish, organise and manage training and coaching institutions/centres. However, they cannot claim that they have any legal or fundamental right to the allotment of land and the Court should issue a mandamus directing the respondents to make provisions for allotment of land to them by framing appropriate scheme under 1952 Act. 3. The provisions contained in the Act of 1952 do not in any manner encroach upon the fundamental rights of the members of the petitioner association to establish training and coaching institutions/centres. 4. The distinction made in the impugned scheme between the Government institutions, Government affiliated and aided institutions on the one hand and unrecognised/unaffiliated institutions on the other hand is quite rationale and justified.
Final Decision: The writ petition was dismissed.
G.S.SINGHVI, J.
1. No human being can achieve fullness in life without education. No society can progress and prosper without making provision for educating its members. No nation can march forward unless its children and young ones are educated. The importance of education is being emphasized since time immemorial. In the Neethishatakam by Bhartruhari (First Century B.C.), it has been said :"Education is the special manifestation of man;Education secures material pleasure, happiness and fame;Education is the teacher of the teacher;Education is God incarnate;Education secures honour at the hands of the State, not money,A man without education is equal to animal."
2. Father of te nation Mahatma Gandhi and the great philosophers, thinkers and educationists like our Presidents late Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and late Dr. Zakir Husssain gave clarion call for educating Indian masses. This is also one of the basic ingredients of the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in Part IV of the Constitution.
3. The learned members of the Constitutent Assembly, who devoted over two years in the framing of the Constitution, made an indepth study on the issue of States obligation to provide education and incorporated various provisions in the chapter relating to fundamental rights and the directive principles of State Policy. Articles 41, 45 and 46 show the importance attached to the education by the founding fathers. Articles 29 to 30 also speak of education. Article 41 says that the "State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployed, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want." Article 45 says that "the State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years." Article 46 commands that "the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation." The three Articles 45, 46 and 41 are designed to achieve the said goal among others. It is in the light of these Articles that the content and parameters of the right to education have to be determined. Right to education, understood in the context of Articles 45 and 41, means; (a) every child citizen of this country has a right to free education until he completes the age of fourteen years, and (b) after a child/citizen completes 14 years, his right to education is circumscribed by the limits of the economic capacity of the State and its development.
4. The international community has also recognised the importance of education and, therefore, provision has been made for this purpose in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 26(1) thereof reads thus :"Everyone has the right to education. Technical and professional and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit."
5. In the World of Science and the Rule of Law by John Ziman, 1986 Edition at page 49 it is stated :
"The principal global treaty which covers this right is the ICESCR, whose Art. 13 recognised the general right to education enunciated by the UDHR, but then goes on to add the following more specific provisions;
(2) The States parties to the present Covenant recognise that, with a view to achieving the full realization of this right;
(a) Primary education, shall be compulsory and available free to all;
(b) Secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational secondary eudcation, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progress
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