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Showing contexts for: elementary schools in Regina vs St. Aloysius Higher Elementary School & ... on 16 March, 1971Matching Fragments
of the school and for the internal discipline, which were all matters left to his discretion and the Management could not be compelled to reinstate the appellant as Head Mistress when she did not command their confidence. The Trial Court held that the appellant was not entitled to claim reinstatement as Head Mistress, because the action of the Management removing the appellant's from the post of Head Mistress was not illegal. The Trial Court also held that the orders passed by the Educational authorities were not binding on the Manager and the action taken by the Manager "though severe", could not be declared illegal. In appeal the District Court reserved the Judgment passed by the Trial Court and decreed the appellant's suit and issued a mandatory injunction directing the Management of the School to reinstate the appellant as Head Mistress of the School. Against that decree a Second Appeal was preferred to the High Court of Mysore. The High Court reversed the decree passed by the District Court and ordered that the appellant's suit do stand dismissed. Against that order this appeal is preferred with special leave. The principal question which fell to be determined before the High Court was whether the rules framed under the Madras Elementary Education Act, 1920, which conferred authority upon the educational authorities of the State, were statutory and enforceable at the instance of a person prejudicially affected by breach thereof. The Madras Elementary Education Act 8 of 1920 which originally contained 56 sections has been amended from time to time by Madras Acts 2 of 1932, 2 of 1934, 11 of 1935, 13 of 1938, 2 of 1939, 15 of 1951, 28 of 1943, 8 of 1946 and 23 of 1950. As a result of these amending Acts a large number of the provisions of the Madras Elementary Education Act, 1920, have been modified or repealed. Section 41 which provided for the recognition of elementary schools and S. 42 which provided for admission of elementary schools to grant-in- aid, stood repealed by Act 2 of 1939. By s. 56 the State Government was authorized to make rules not inconsistent with the Act to carry out all or any of the purposes of the Act, and by sub-s. (2) of s. 56 it was provided :
(h) declaring the conditions subject to which schools may be admitted to recognition or aid."10
Rules were framed under the Act for the first time by the Govt. of Madras in 1922. These rules provided for the grant of recognition and aid to elementary schools, and for prescribing conditions of service and qualifications of teachers and the authority of the District Educational Inspector and higher authorities. The provisions relating to the recognition of the elementary schools and admission of primary elementary schools to grantsin-aid were, as stated earlier, repealed by Act 2 of 1939, but the power to frame rules, especially for the purpose of declaring the conditions subject to which schools may be admitted to recognition or aid, was retained.
Counsel for the appellant urged that in spite of the changes made from time to time in the Act, the rules with which we are concerned in this appeal have retained their original character of being statutory rules., They must, therefore, be, held to have been made under s. 56 and particularly under cl. (h) of its sub-s. (2), which empowers the Government to make rules in respect. of recognition as an elementary school and the aid which the Government gives to it from public funds. The argument was that despite the changes in the Act, particularly the deletion of certain provisions of the Act, to which we shall presently come, the definition of an 'elementary school' in the Act takes in schools recognised by the Director of Public Instruction of the State Government, and since such a recognised school is the essence of the scheme of elementary education provided by the Act, the rules have to- be treated as statutory rules made,under, cl. (h) of s. 56(2) which is still retained in the Act.
Sub-cl. (vi) of r. 13(2) provides for appeals, first, before the District Educational Officer, and then, before the Divisional Inspector of Schools. Under r. 14, the Director of Public Instructions has the power to declare, after enquiry, a teacher to be unfit for employment in a recognised school. Under r.. 14-A, he can refuse or withdraw recognition from a school in which is employed a teacher whom he has declared to be unfit, or when the school is under the management of a person declared unfit by him. Recognition can also' be withdrawn under rr. 26 to 28, 28-A and 28-B on the grounds set out therein. Ch. 11 of Part II Rules contain rules in regard to aid, such as teaching grants, maintenance grant etc., and Ch. III contains rules with regard, to grants for school buildings, building sites and play-grounds. Chs. II and IV of the Act, which contained provisions for recognition and aid, having been repealed, these rules, reissued and published afresh in August 1939, cannot be said to be rules "to,, carry out all or any of the purposes of this Act", as provided by S. 56(1). No doubt, cl. (h) of sub-S. (2) of S. 56 was still retained even after Chs. 11 and IV were deleted, and therefore, the Government could perhaps claim to have the power to frame statutory rules "declaring the conditions subject to which schools may be admitted to recognition or aid". But even if the Government were to claim to have framed rules under the sanction contained in cl. (h) of S. 56(2), such rules would not satisfy the condition precedent for such rule-making, namely, that they can be made only "to carry out all or any of the purposes of this Act"., Such rules, therefore, even if made, would not be rules made under S. 56. Besides, the fact is that when Part 11 Rules were published in the gazette of August 28, 1939, they were not claimed to have been made under the power reserved to the Government under S. 56. If they were claimed to have been so made, they would, firstly, have been pre-published as required by S. 56(1), and secondly, the Government would not have made the distinction between Part I and Part II Rules, which it did, by giving a title to the former, namely, that they were made under the Act, and omitting to give such a title to the latter. These facts support the contention of the respondent-school that Part 11 Rules cannot be said to be statutory rules framed under S. 56, although the power to make such rules is still retained with the Government by reason of cl. (h) being still there in S. 56(2). Ordinarily, the relations between the management of an ele- mentary school and the teachers employed in it would be governed by the terms of the contract of employment and the law of master and servant in the absence of any statute controlling or abrogating such a contract of employment and providing to the contrary. The mere fact that such a school has obtained recognition and aid from the education department would not mean that the relationship between its management and its employees has ceased to be governed by the contracts of employment under which the employees are recruited and by the law of master and servant unless there is some provision in the Act overriding that law as one finds in statutes dealing with industrial disputes and similar other matters. There is in fact no such provision in the Act and none was pointed out to us. The result is that the relations between the management and the teachers even in a recognised elementary school have to be regarded as being governed by the contracts of employment and the terms and conditions contained therein. Part II Rules, which cannot be regarded as having the status of statutory rules made under S. 56, cannot be said to have the effect of controlling the relations between the management of a school and its teachers or the terms and conditions of employment of such teachers or abrogating the law of master and servant which ordinarily would govern those relations. But it cannot also be gainsaid that as the Government has the power, to admit schools to recognition and grants-in- aid, it can, de hors the Act, lay down conditions under which it would grant recognition and aid. To achieve uniformity and certainty in the exercise of such executive power and to avoid discrimination, the Government would have to frame rules which, however, would be in the form of administrative instructions to its officers dealing with the matters of recognition and aid. If such rules were to lay down conditions, the Government can insist that satisfaction of such conditions would be condition precedent to obtaining recognition and aid and that a breach or non-compliance of such conditions would entail either the denial or withdrawal of recognition and aid. The management of school, therefore, would commit a breach or non-compliance of the conditions laid down in the rules on pain of deprivation of recognition and aid. The rules thus govern the terms on which the Government would grant recognition and aid and the Government can enforce those rules upon the management. But the enforcement of such rules is a matter between the Government and the management, and a third party, such as a, teacher aggrieved by some order of the management, cannot derive from the rules any enforceable right against the management oh the ground of a breach or noncompliance of any of the rules. To illustrate the point, suppose the management of a school were to terminate the service of a teacher after giving one month's notice, or one month's salary in lieu thereof in 'accordance with the contract of employment between the feather and the management, such a termination would be valid. But the 'Government can insist that since its rules provide for three months' 'notice, the management cannot terminate the service of a teacher by giving only one month's notice. Though in the absence of 'statutory provision having the effect of controlling or superseding the contract of employment agreed to between the parties, the termination would in law be valid, nevertheless, the Government can withdraw, under Part II Rules, the recognition and aid it has given to the school since its rules governing recognition and aid were riot complied with. But that does not mean that Part II Rules confer upon a third party, viz., an aggrieved employee of a school, any remedy enforceable at law in the event of the management of an elementary school refusing to comply with these rules which, inter alia, enjoin upon a school to abide by the directions given thereunder by the education officers of the Government named therein.