The power of the University to change textbooks is within its discretion, and the absence of a nominated chairman at a meeting of the Board of Studies that recommends the change does not invalidate the decision of the Board if it has no material effect on the decision.

( 1 ) THIS is an application of an unusual nature even by the standards of those under Article 226 of the Constitution. This year, the two text books prescribed for general English for the B. Sc. Part I Examination of the Vikram University have been changed; in other words, those for the examination of 1961 are different from those in 1960. The petitioner is a student who had failed in the B. Sc. Part I Examination of 1960 and is preparing to appear for the examination in 1961. She has already studied these two old books and feels that the change has put her "to financial loss and exposed her to extra strain". Accordingly, she challenges this change, which under the law is made on the recommendation of the Board of Studies constituted by the University; according to her, this change is legally invalid, because the Board at the meeting of the 4th February, 1960, did not have a chairman nominated by the Vice Chancellor, but elected ad hoc, one of its own members for that office. It is further alleged that the practice of not changing the textbooks, except after a number of years, has been given up on this occasion and the direction of the University Grants Commission, that textbooks should not be frequently changed, has also been ignored. Accordingly the petitioner prays that the decision of the Board of Studies (of 4th February 1960) be declared illegal, and the University directed to continue the use of the same textbooks for the examination of 1961 as had been, prescribed for the examination of 1960.

( 2 ) THE principles on which the High Court might issue directions and writs under Article 226 of the Constitution are by now well established so that it is unnecessary to cite case law on this subject. The Vikram University, like most of the Universities in our country, is an autonomous corporation, constituted by a statute (Madhya Bharat Act 18 of 1955), and maintained by the State of Madhya Pradesh. As such, it comes within the definition of "state" in Article 12, the pharse "all local or other authorities" being wide enough to include a University maintained by State funds. So a University is amenable to a direction or writ issued by the High Court in appropriate cases. At the same time, as it has been constituted to exercise some highly specialized functions, acting through officers and subordinate authorities appointed or constituted by itself in exercise of. powers given by statute, there should be very good reason for the High Court interfering in this manner. The basic requirements for this are that, firstly, there should be a patent and undoubted violation of a provision in the Statute or regulation or ordinance governing the particular subject; secondly, this non-compliance or violation should have directly resulted in a substantial restriction of the service or benefit which a citizen is entitled to get from the University, that is, the breach should be such that, but for it, the petitioner would not have suffered this inconvenience or denial; thirdly, the direction or relief sought should be such that it should not add to the inconvenience suffered by the public at large disproportionate to the injustice or inconvenience that is sought to be remedied.

( 3 ) IN the instant case, the petitioner's allegation is that the change of taxtbooks within a particular number of years is against the recognized practice and the direction given by the University Grants Commission. Changing of the textbooks is left to the discretion of the University which it will exercise on the recommendation of a specialised body called the Board of Studies on the respective subjects. The recommendation of the Board is usually accepted. The Board itself, like all academic bodies, would normally be unwilling to make many changes, but there is no rule or law shown to me that for so many years there should be no change. In practice, there will be the minimum number of changes consistent with the maintenance of the standards and the fac