IMPORTANT POINT
The court affirmed the right to maintenance grant for the primary section of an institution, emphasizing its integral relationship with the main institution under the Act of 1971.

JUDGMENT :

J.J. Munir, J.

1. This writ petition has come up for hearing after remand by the Division Bench in an appeal under Chapter VIII Rule 5 of the Rules of Court carried by the State from the judgment and order dated 19.10.2012, allowing the writ petition.

2. This writ petition is directed against the order of the Director of Education (Secondary) dated 17th November, 2006, refusing extension of maintenance grant to the attached primary section of the Digvijay Nath Inter College, Chowk Bazar, Maharajganj. The writ petition has been preferred by the Management of the aforesaid College. Beyond laying a challenge to the order of the Director of Education, denying the maintenance grant, the petitioners further seek a mandamus to the respondents to extend grant-in-aid to the attached primary section of the College under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh High Schools and Intermediate Colleges (Payment of Salaries of Teachers and Other Employees) Act, 1971 (for short, 'the Act of 1971').

3. The short facts, giving rise to this petition, are these:

The Digvijay Nath Inter College, Chowk Bazar, Maharajganj (for short, 'the Institution') is an intermediate college, recognized under the Intermediate Education Act, 1921 (for short, 'the Act of 1921'). Salaries to teachers and other employees of the Institution, other than the primary section, are paid out of the maintenance grant extended by the State under the provisions of the Act of 1971. The Institution has an attached primary section, teaching students from Classes 1 to 5. The primary section, according to the petitioners, is housed in the same premises as Classes 6 to 12 and under the supervision and control of the same Principal and the Management. In substance, the Institution says that they are an integral whole from Class 1 to 12. The District Inspector of Schools, Gorakhpur vide order dated 04.03.1972 granted recognition to the primary section of the Institution, followed by an order of the District Inspector of Schools dated 07.07.1972, granting permission to the Institution to run an attached primary section.

4. It is the petitioners' case that the Committee of Management appointed teachers and other staff to manage the attached primary section. The petitioners say that they were not included in the list of 393 institutions, teaching High School and Intermediate Classes, whose attached primary sections were brought under maintenance grant vide Government Order dated 06.09.1989. It is the petitioners' case that 15 sections were acknowledged to be functional in the primary section of the Institution by the District Inspector of Schools vide his order dated 30.08.1991. The Institution, according to the petitioners, is situate in a remote area, away from the City of Gorakhpur, now part of Maharajganj. It is more than 20 kilometers away from the District Headquarters of Maharajganj. It lies on the Nepal Border. The petitioners say that the Institution was recognized in the year 1972, but not included in the list of institutions by the State Government to whose primary sections maintenance grant was provided. The petitioners, therefore, requested the State Government through the District Inspector of Schools that they be provided maintenance grant for their attached primary section. It appears that the petitioners' case was recommended by the Deputy Director of Education to the Director of Education by his memo dated 24.10.1991.

5. Since the Director of Education did not pass any orders on the endorsed request of the petitioners, they instituted Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.43123 of 1997 with a prayer that the Director of Education be commanded to pass appropriate orders on the letter of the Deputy Director of Education dated 24.10.1991, recommending the petitioners' case. This Court by an order dated 24.08.1998 disposed of the last mentioned writ petition with a direction to the Director of Education to decide the petitioners' claim within three months of the production of a cert