A school manager must provide termination notice to the designated government authority to lawfully close a school; failure to do so invalidates the closure.

JUDGMENT

P.B.Suresh Kumar, J.

Among these appeals, W.A.Nos.860 of 2022 and

1131 of 2022 are preferred against the judgment in W.P.(C) No.8094 of 2022 and W.A.Nos.908 of 2022 and 1097 of 2022 are preferred against the judgment in W.P.(C) No.8212 of 2022. W.A.No.851 of 2022 is preferred against the judgment in W.P.

(C) No.16323 of 2022.

2. The writ petitions from which the above appeals arise were disposed of by a common judgment and as such, the appeals are also disposed of by this common judgment. Parties and documents are referred to in this judgment for convenience, as they appear in W.P.(C) No.8094 of 2022.

3. The petitioner in the writ petition is the Manager of Haji Essa Haji Moosa Memorial High School, an aided school (the School), having classes from standard I to X. The school is established and run by a trust namely Himayathul Islam Trust (the Trust). The writ petitions relate to the right of the Trust to close down the school.

4. The School is one established in the year 1948.

It is stated by the petitioner that although about 1,000 children were pursuing studies in the School during late eighties, of late, the strength of the students came down heavily and there are only a very few students now in all the classes together. According to the petitioner, the Trust is one constituted with the object of imparting education to children and as the Trust is not able to achieve its object by running the School in this fashion, it has decided to close down the School and addressed a representation to respondents 2 to 4 seeking permission to close down the High School section of the School from the academic year 2022-23 onwards. Ext.P1 is the representation submitted by the petitioner in this regard. A representation similar to Ext.P1 was addressed by the petitioner to respondents 2 to 4 seeking permission to close down the Lower Primary section of the School also. No orders have been passed on the said representations either by the second respondent or the fourth respondent. The third respondent, however, rejected the representations by a common order stating that there are 138 students and 23 staff in the School and since alternative arrangements cannot be made by the Government for taking care of the interests of the students and staff, the permission sought for cannot be granted. Ext.P3 is the order issued by the third respondent in this regard. Ext.P3 was under challenge in the writ petition preferred in respect of the request made by the petitioner for closure of the High School section of the School. W.P.(C) No.8212 of 2022 was one instituted by the petitioner challenging Ext.P3 order separately in respect of the claim made for closure of the Lower Primary school section of the School.

5. W.P.(C) No.16323 of 2022 was one instituted by the sixth respondent in the writ petition. The sixth respondent is the President of the Parent Teacher Association of the School. He filed the said writ petition seeking directions to the Government to consider Ext.P1 representation preferred by him and others before the Government to take over the School in public interest.

6. The writ petitions were taken up together. In the light of the provision contained in Section 7(6) of the Kerala Education Act (the Act) and Rule 24 of Chapter V of the Kerala Education Rules (the KER ), and having regard to the fact that the provision contained in Rule 6(10) of the Kerala Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules , 2011, framed under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act , 2009, the learned Single Judge took the view that the petitioner is entitled to close down the School and consequently allowed W.P.(C) Nos.8094 of 2022 and 8212 of 2022, set aside Ext.P3 communication and disposed of the writ petitions directing the State Government to undertake the task of accommodating the students in the neighbouring schools. In the light of the decision in the aforesaid writ petitions, W.P.(C) No.16323 of 2022 was dismissed. The o