By the Court.—These are Six Appeals against a common judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 30.11.2016 passed in Writ Petition Nos. 23297 of 2016 (Aslam Khan and 13 others) connected with writ petition 36710 of 2016 (Mohd. Matloob Khan and 6 others).

2. Special Appeal No. 82 of 2017 and Special Appeal No. 83 of 2017 have been filed by the Committee of Management of Bara Inter College, Bara District Ghazipur through its Manager Appeal No. 16 of 2017 and 17 of 2017 have been filed by teachers and employees who had been appointed in the said institution, treating it to be minority institution while Appeal No. 84 of 2017 and Appeal No. 85 of 2017 have been filed by the writ petitioners against last part of the order of the learned Single Judge, whereby he has remanded the matter to the Commission for re-hearing on the issue as to whether the Institution in question is to be treated/declared a minority institution.

3. We have heard Chetan Chatterjee, Advocate on behalf of the Committee of Management of the Institution Sri. Ashok Khare, Senior Advocate assisted by Mohammad Abrar Khan on behalf of the teachers and employees who had been appointed in the Institution and Sri. M.D. Singh Shekhar Senior Advocate, assisted by Amrita Mishra on behalf of the petitioners/appellants in all these six special appeals as well as Standing Counsel on behalf of State-respondents.

4. The facts relevant for leading these appeals are as under:

National Association, Bara was established as a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in District Ghazipur in the year 1947. The said society established an institution in the name of Junior High School, Bara District Ghazipur in the year 1948.

The Institution was upgraded to the level of Higher Secondary Shcool after grant of due recognition in the year 1966 and thereafter as an Intermediate College after grant of recognition as such by the U.P. Board for High School and Intermediate in the year 1972 under the Provisions of the Intermediate Education Act, 1921 (hereinafter referred to as Act, 1921).

5. The name of the Institution was changed and now reads as Bara Inter College, Bara District Ghazipur. The Institution is aided and covered by the provisions of Uttar Pradesh High Schools and Intermediate Colleges (Payment of Salaries of Teachers and other Employees) Act, 1971 (hereinafter referred to as ‘ Act 1971’). There was no issue with regard to the status of the institution between 1948 to 1995.

6. However, in the year, 1995 the State Government stated to have conferred the minority status upon the institution vide Government order dated 13th March, 1995. The conferment of minority status came to be challegned before the High Court by means of the writ petition No. 7827 of 1998 the writ petition was allowed by the learned Single Judge vide order dated 5.4.1999, following the law laid down by the Apex Court in the case of S. Azeez Basha and another v. Union of India, AIR 1968 SC 662.

7. The learned Single Judge specifically examined the material which was brought on record by the Committee of Management to claim minority status and which was placed before the State Government for the purpose. This writ Court returned a categorical findings of fact that the Institution had not been established by the minority community and for arriving at the said conclusion amongst other, it was noticed that there were 7 Members belonging to the majority community, who had participated in the establishment of the society which created the Institution. It was further recorded that the membership of the society was open to all categories of persons irrespective of the community to which he belonged. On payment of Rs. 500/- he would become a patron member while on payment of other amount as mentioned in the bye laws, a person would become a life member or an ordinary member.

8. It was, therefore, held that the membership of the society was not restricted to the minority communities only.

9. Fr