JUDGMENT :

Nirmaljit Kaur, J.

1. This order shall dispose of all the above mentioned writ petitions as the impugned orders are common. However, for the sake of convenience, the facts are being extracted from CWP-7409-2020.

2. Petitioner No.1 in CWP No.7409 of 2020 is an Association of 78 unaided privately managed schools, which are affiliated either with Central Board of Secondary Education (‘CBSE’) or with Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), whereas petitioner Nos.2 to 9 are the Societies running their respective Schools, which are private unaided Educational Institutions and are presently members of petitioner No.1-Association.

3. Due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is witnessing unprecedented times. India has not been able to remain unscathed from the spread of the contagion. To deal with the emergent situation, the Government of India as also the State of Punjab, have taken certain stringent measures. The country has been under nationwide lockdown since 24.03.2020. The Governor of Punjab, in exercise of powers purportedly conferred under Sections 2 , 3 and 4 of the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897 (for brevity,’ the 1897 Act’) framed regulations ‘the Punjab Epidemic Disease, Covid-19 Regulations, 2020’ (for brevity, 'the Regulations 2020’) which were duly notified on March 05, 2020, by the Government of Punjab through its Department of Health and Family Welfare.

4. Thereafter, the Director, School Education (for brevity, 'the DSE') issued directions vide Memo dated 23.03.2020, whereby the non- Government Educational Institutions have been ordered to reschedule the last date of deposit of ‘admission fee’ to one month after the condition improves and that no extra fine should be imposed on the parents of the students studying in the Private unaided schools, on account of late fee.

5. Subsequently, the DSE vide memo dated 08.04.2020, while giving reference to memos dated 13.03.2020 and 23.03.2020, reiterated the earlier directions regarding rescheduling of the last date for depositing of the admission fee and drew the attention of the private unaided schools to the DO issued by Union Ministry of Labour and Employment dated 20.03.2020, whereby private establishments have been advised not to terminate their employees, or reduce their wages. If any worker takes leave, he should be deemed to be on duty without any consequential deduction in wages for this period after making reference of aforementioned letter of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the order of the DSE goes on to note that the private schools are ordered to follow the above instructions, and if any schools are violating the instructions, the No objection Certificate/Recognition granted to them will be cancelled and further, it will also be written to their respective Boards to cancel their affiliation.

6. It may be pertinent to mention that on 10.04.2020, the DSE notified that summer vacations in all the Government, Aided and private schools would be from 11.04.2020 to 10.05.2020, being a duration of 30 days. The CBSE as well as CISCE had also been issuing