Hon’ble Vineet Saran, J.—By means of Government Order dated 7.9.2006, applications were invited from permanently recognized unaided Junior High Schools for being taken on grant-in-aid of the State Government. The eligibility criteria of the applicants were mentioned in the said Government Order. One such condition enumerated in paragraph 2(13) was that only institutions imparting education from classes 6 to 8 would be eligible to apply, meaning thereby that those institutions which were imparting education to classes lower than class 6 or classes higher than class 8 would not be entitled to apply. Pursuant to the said Government Order, an advertisement was issued by the Directorate of Basic Education on 9.9.2006, inviting applications from eligible institutions, in which also a similar condition was imposed, being condition No. 12.

2. Aggrieved by the said condition, nine educational institutions have filed this writ petition primarily with the prayer for quashing the condition No. 2(13) contained in the Government Order dated 7.9.2006, as well as condition No. 12 of the advertisement dated 9.9.2006 issued by the Directorate of Basic Education. A further prayer has also been