O R D E R

The case of the petitioner is that during the year 1955, the petitioner father late Mr.R.Perumal had established Thiruvalluvar Senior Basic School at Pannapattu Village, Chidambaram Taluk, Cuddalore District to impart basic education to the poor and downtrodden village students in consonance with Gandhian Principles. The school was aided by the Government of Tamil Nadu. At the time of establishment, the school was only a Middle School, conducting classes from VI to VIII standard and 3 teachers plus one vocational teacher was fixed for the aided post. During the year 1962, the said school became full-fledged middle school by adding I to V standard. As the school got high patronage from the local pupils, the strength of the students was in increasing trend and the aided posts was fixed at 8 class teachers and one fulltime pre-vocational staff.

The present student’s strength of the school is 144.

2. Under G.O.Ms.No.525, School Education (D1) Department of Tamil Nadu dated

29.12.1997, in Elementary School (I to V standard), the teachers pupil ratio 1:40 will be followed. Minimum of 2 Secondary Grade Teachers upto a strength of 80 will be sanctioned. In respect of new schools, first post will be created in the first year and second post in the second year. One of the two posts will be in the grade of Head Master. For every additional strength of 40, one post of Secondary Grade teacher will be sanctioned, i.e., the third post at 100, the fourth post at 140, the fifth post at 180 and so on. Regarding the bifurcation of standard, additional sections will be created when the strength exceeds 60 and so on in slabs of 40.

3. The respondent has totally violated the Government Order and fixed the vacancies of Aided Teacher post in the petitioner’s school in a zigzag manner. For the year 2010-2011, the student’s strength of elementary section was assessed at 73 and the Middle Section strength was assessed at 110 and totally 183 students are studying in the said sections. The respondent has fixed the strength of teaching staff at 8. During the year 2011 to 2013, the student’s strength in primary section was assessed at 67 and the middle section strength was 103, totally 170 students. The respondent issued a proceeding dated 30.01.2012, fixed the teachers strength for the year 2011- 2012 at 6.

3.1. This being so, on 22.11.2012, under the instruction of the respondent, two persons under came to the petitioner’s school and advised all the teaching staffs to leave the place and assessed the student strength. When the petitioner questioned about their identity, they claimed themselves as officers authorized by the respondent and they came for a surprise visit. Moreso, they assessed the primary section student strength at 49 and middle section student strength at 46, totaling 111. Again on 05.12.2012, another team of persons made a surprise visit to the petitioner’s school and assessed the elementary section student strength at 58 and middle section student strength at 86, totaling 144. On 19.12.2012, the Assistant Elementary Education Officer, Keelapalayam, Cuddalore conducted an annual inspection in the petitioner’s school and assessed the elementary section student strength at 62 and middle section student strength at 91, totaling 153. Instead of giving weightage to the annual inspection conducted by the Competent Officer or to draw average strength from all the three inspections, the respondent has fixed the students strength based on the assessment made by his subordinates, which is the lowest of all the three inspections and issued a proceeding dated 07.02.2013, fixed the aided teachers post in the petitioner’s school at one Secondary Grade Teacher. It is significant to point out that thought the respondent fixed the aided teachers post in the petitioner’s school at 6 in the year 2011-2012 in his proceeding dated 27.03.2012, the preceding year’s fixation was also slashed down to one.

4. The action of the respondent, fixing only one Second