CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.10743 OF 2009 :{ 1 }:

IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH

DATE OF DECISION: AUGUST 17, 2010

Ideal Private Schools Association (Regd.), Faridabad

.....Petitioner

VERSUS

State of Haryana and others

....Respondents

CORAM:- HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RANJIT SINGH

1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgement?

2. To be referred to the Reporters or not?

3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest?

PRESENT:

Mr. S. P. Jain, Sr.Advocate with

Mr. Dheeraj Jain & Mr.Davesh Moudgil, Advocates,

for the petitioner.

Mr. Sunil Nehra, Sr.DAG, Haryana,

for the State.

Mr. Vikas Suri, Advocate,

Sr.Standing counsel for respondent No.2.

****

RANJIT SINGH, J.

This order will dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos.10743 of

2009 (Ideal Private Schools Association (regd.), Faridabad Vs.

State of Haryana and another)

, 13939 of 2009 (Digamber Jain

and another Vs. State of Haryana and others), 15077 of 2009

(Haryana Progressive School's Conference (regd.), Faridabad

Vs. State of Haryana and others), 15910 of 2009 (Haryana

Engineering College, Jagadhri, Distt. Yamuna Nagar Vs. State of

CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.10743 OF 2009 :{ 2 }:

Haryana and others), 18004 of 2009 (Seth Nand Lal Bajaj

Education Charitable Society, Chandigarh Vs. State of Punjab

and another)

, 18965 of 2009 (New Daffodil Public School, Patiala

Vs. State of Punjab and another), 5302 of 2010 (Association of

the PSEB affiliated Schools (Pb.) (Regd.), Ludhiana Vs. State of

Punjab and another), 6135 of 2010 (Sarvhitkari Educational

Society (Regd.), Chandigarh Vs. State of Punjab and another),

8798 of 2010 (M/s Jyoti Model Sr.Sec.School, Kotakpura Vs.

State of Punjab and another) and 12891 of 2010 (Haryana School

Welfare Association (Regd.), Bilaspur, District Yamunanagar

Vs. State of Haryana and another).

A hotly debated issue raised in these ten writ petitions is

“whether Employees' State Insurance Act can be made applicable to

Un-aided Education Institutions”. The lead petition is filed by

Association of Private Schools, namely, Ideal Private School

Education (Regd.), Faridabad. Other writ petition Nos.13939, 15077,

15910, 18965, 18004 of 2009 and 12891, 5302, 6135 and 8798 of

2010, containing identical challenge, have been filed by various

Institutions. The facts are mainly extracted from CWP No.10743 of

2009 and all the petitions are being disposed of through this common

order as common question of law arises in these petitions.

The petitioner-Association in CWP No.10743 of 2009

claims to be an Association representing about 150 recognised

Unaided Private Schools, affiliated to Haryana School Education

Board and are situated in various parts of District Faridabad

(Haryana). All these schools are receiving no grant-in-aid nor any

CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.10743 OF 2009 :{ 3 }:

other assistance of facility from the Government of Haryana. The

petitioners are aggrieved against the action of the State Government

in issuing notification under Section 1(5) of Employees' State

Insurance Act, 1948 (hereinafter called as “ESI Act”). The proposal to

extend the provisions of the Act to the educational Institutions upon

its due approval by the Central Government was published on

11.4.2008. Accordingly, a notice was given for taking up the proposal

into consideration after expiry of period of six months from the date of

publication of the notification in the official gazette. Objections or

suggestions, if any, received from any person, likely to be affected

were also to be considered along with the proposal to extend the

provisions of the ESI Act to unaided educational institutions. The

description of the establishment to which the provision