The central legal point established is that a recognized school fulfilling the requirements for grant-in-aid is entitled to receive it, and the State has an obligation to provide free and compulsory elementary education within a specified distance.

JUDGMENT :

Vipin Sanghi, J.

The present Special Appeal is directed against the judgment dated 06.08.2018, passed by the learned Single Judge in Writ Petition (M/S) No. 1820 of 2017. The learned Single Judge has allowed the said writ petition preferred by the respondent Manavta Higher Primary School, Gandhi Nagar, Bindukhatta, District Nainital, and directed the appellant to treat the said school for grant-in-aid since 04.02.2014, when the said school was brought under grant-in-aid.

2. The admitted position is that the State Government issued an order on 04.02.2014, in respect of several schools, including the respondent school, thereby bringing the said school under grant-in-aid. The order dated 04.02.2014 itself records that the respondent school was a recognized school. Despite being brought under the grant-in-aid, actually, the grant-in-aid was not released to the respondent school. On 01.02.2016, the Government issued another order, whereby granting token grant to several institutions, including the respondent school for the year 2015-16. This was on the premise that there were certain deficiencies in respect of the institution to which token grant was issued. The deficiency pointed out qua the respondent school was that it was situated on forest land. We may observe that there were other schools as well, situated in the same village, which were also granted token grant on the same premise that they were situated on forest land. One such institution is Janta Purva Madhyamik Vidyalaya, Chitrakut, Tiwari Nagar, Bindukhatta, Nainital. Once again, a token grant was granted to the respondent school on 23.12.2016, for the year 2016-17.

3. Aforesaid being the position, the respondent preferred the writ petition in question to seek a direction to the authorities to include the respondent school’s name in the list of aided schools. The writ-petitioner sought parity with other similarly situated schools. The petitioner pointed out in the writ petition that the Janta Purva Madhyamik Vidyalaya, Chitrakut, Tiwari Nagar, Bindukhatta, Nainital had, in fact, been granted full aid vide communication dated 04.01.2017, even though the said school was also situated on forest land.

4. The appellant defended the writ petition on the ground that the Government has issued an order on 04.01.2017, laying down the conditions which the schools had to fulfill to be entitled to receive grant-in-aid. The conditions, inter alia, laid down were that the Junior High School – which the respondent is, should have at least 100 students (since it is situated in plain area); the land whereon the school is situated should be registered in the name of the institution or there should be an agreement in favour of the institution in respect of the land where the institution is running; the construction of the building should be in terms of the regulations prescribed and lastly; there should be no other Junior High School within a distance of 5 kms. The appellant claims that these conditions were not satisfied by the respondent school and, therefore, it was not entitled to receive grant-in-aid. The learned Single Judge has, however, rejected the submissions of the appellant by the detailed impugned judgment. The learned Single Judge has rejected the reliance placed by the appellant on the order dated 04.01.2017 by observing that the same cannot have retrospective effect. The respondent school had been sanctioned grant-in-aid way back on 04.02.2014, and that order had not been recalled. The learned Single Judge also took note of the fact that Right to Elementary Education had been elevated to a fundamental right and, consequently, the “Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009” was passed by the Parliament, which vested every child of the age of six to fourteen years with a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education. Under the Act, every child was entitled to free and compulsory education from