Court No. - 33
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 9603 of 2017 Petitioner :- C/M Purvanchal Prachya Ved Vidyalaya Thru' Its Manager Respondent :- State Of U.P. & 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Kushmondeya Shahi Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner; learned Standing Counsel for respondents 1 to 5 and perused the record. With the consent of learned counsel for the parties, the petition is being decided finally.
The petitioner is Committee of Management of Purvanchal Prachya Ved Vidyalay, Bharauli, Lar Road, Deoria, which is a recognized Sanskrit institution and is affiliated with Sampurnand Sanskrit University, Varanasi and has also been granted permanent recognition.
According to the petitioner in the year 2014, Government Orders were issued inviting application from Sanskrit institutions, recognized up to the year 2000, for taking them on grant-in-aid. For the said purpose, a committee was constituted to make recommendation.
It is the case of the petitioner that an application was submitted for taking the institution on grant-in-aid list as per the said Government Orders. However, when no decision was taken on the prayer of the petitioner, Writ C No.20817 of 2016 was filed before this Court which was disposed of by requiring the respondents to take appropriate decision within three months. When no decision was taken, despite direction of this Court, contempt application was filed and, thereafter, to show compliance of the order passed by the writ Court, impugned order dated 5th August, 2016 was shown to have been passed by stating that the Joint Director of Education, Gorakhpur Region, Gorakhpur had submitted report dated 9th June, 2016 not recommending the institution for being brought on grant-in-aid list.
According to the petitioner the impugned order dated 5th August, 2016 is a back dated order because till 19th October, 2016, communication/correspondence was being made/exchanged by/between the officers concerned dealing with the application of the petitioner for being brought on grant-in-aid list as would be clear from the document appended at page 83 of the paper book. It has been submitted that the impugned order was drafted just to show that the order passed by this Court in Writ C No.20817 of 2016 has been complied with, otherwise, there is complete non-application of mind on material/reports on record.
It is the case of the petitioner that the State Level Committee in its meeting dated 27th July, 2016 had supported the case of the petitioner for being brought on grant-in-aid list but the report of the State Level Committee was not accorded consideration in the impugned order dated 5th August, 2016.
Upon submissions of the petitioner, counter affidavit was invited and was filed. However, since the report dated 9th June, 2016, which forms basis of the impugned order, was not on record, on 2nd January, 2018, following order was passed:-
"The impugned order dated 05th August, 2016 places reliance on a report/letter dated 09.06.2016 of the Joint Regional Director of Education, Gorakhpur in not letting the petitioner institution be on the grant-in-aid list.
The letter dated 09.06.2016 is not on record and even the counter affidavit does not enclose the said letter.
The case of the petitioner is that the State Level Committee had made a recommendation in favour of the petitioner institution vide its meeting dated 27.07.2016 but the recommendation made by the State Level Committee was not accorded any consideration in the order impugned dated 05th August, 2016.
It has been submitted that the order impugned was passed pursuant to a direction given by this Court in Writ-C No.20817 of 2016. It has been submitted that when the order passed by the writ court was not complied with, a contempt petition was filed and while the said contempt petition was pending, the Joint Secretary, Government of U.P. had addressed a letter to the District Magistrate, Deoria seeking certain information. That letter was issued on 19th October, 2016. In that letter impugned order dated 05th August, 2016 does not find mention, which suggests that the order impugned dated 05th August, 2016 is back dated order just to disclose compliance of the earlier order passed by the writ court. It has been submitted that since the order dated 05th August, 2016 does not accord consideration to the report dated 27.07.2016, the same deserves to be set aside.
The counter affidavit which has been filed by the State does not deal with the aforesaid aspect and as the earlier report dated 09.06.2016 is not on record which forms basis of the order dated 05th August, 2016, this Court considers it appropriate to direct the Standing Counsel to file a supplementary counter affidavit dealing with the aforesaid aspect.
The supplementary counter affidavit will also disclose whether the objections contained in the earlier report dated 09.06.2016 were found to be non-existent in the subsequent report dated 27.07.2016 which finds mention in the letter dated 19th October, 2016.
List this matter on 29th January, 2018, by which date, supplementary counter affidavit shall be filed in the light of the observations made herein above.
Let a copy of this order be supplied to the learned Standing Counsel for compliance."
Thereafter on 12th February, 2018, following order was passed:-
"On 29.01.2018 the following order was passed:-
Learned Standing Counsel prays for and is allowed two weeks and no more further time to comply with order dated 2nd January, 2018.
List this matter on 12th February, 2018. If the order dated 2nd January, 2018 is not complied with by the next date, the Director of Education (Secondary) shall be present before the Court in person along with necessary records.
Despite the above order neither the counter-affidavit has been filed nor the Director of Education (Secondary) is present before this Court.
In view of the above, list this case on 28th February, 2018.
On which date, the Director of Education (Secondary) shall be present before this Court in person.
Let a copy of this order be supplied to the learned Standing Counsel for compliance."
Today, pursuant to the order dated 12th February, 2018, the Director is present before the Court in person and supplementary counter affidavit has been filed today placing report dated 9th June, 2016 as Annexure-SCA'1'.
A perusal of the letter/report dated 9th June, 2016 (Annexure-SCA'1' to the supplementary affidavit), which is at page 10, would reveal that there appears nothing specific in the report which may indicate that the institution was not liable to be taken on grant-in-aid list although there is a statement that the teaching staff of the institution up to the extent of Principal and five Assistant Teachers could be brought on grant-in-aid whereas the remaining staff would have to be paid salary from the management's own sources. But there appears no adverse comment which may enable the authority to conclude that there was a negative report against the institution in respect of its claim for being brought on grant-in-aid list.
That apart there is no consideration of the State Level Committee report dated 27th July, 2016, which finds mention in the document which has been appended at page 95 of the paper book.
In view of the above, this Court is of the view that the order dated 5th August, 2016 (Annexure-'13' to the petition) has been passed by the State Government in hurry without properly applying its mind to various reports which were there on record.
Accordingly, the order dated 5th August, 2016 is liable to be set aside and is accordingly set aside. The State Government shall shall accord fresh consideration to the request of the petitioner institution for being brought on grant-in-aid list in accordance with law keeping in mind all the relevant reports including one that has been noticed here-in-above. Fresh exercise shall be completed preferably within a period of two months from the date of furnishing certified copy of this order upon the first respondent.
The petition stands allowed to the extent indicated above.
Order Date :- 28.2.2018. Rks.