Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

68. The Government of U.P. sanctioned a recurring grant of Rs. 25,000/- for maintenance to the college in the year 1952, and it was increased from time to time. The College received the grants till 1993-94.

5. It is the case of the appellant, that the strata of the society from which the students were attending this school and intermediate college slowly started preferring the schools affiliated to the ICSE Course. The number of students went on dwindling, and therefore the appellant decided to switch over to the ICSE course run by the Council. The management sought the No Objection from the State of U.P. for this switch over, and the Joint Secretary of the Education Department of the State of U.P. informed the appellant by his letter dated 26.4.1980 that the State Government had no objection to the appellant-college getting affiliated to the course run by the Council subject to the following two conditions:-

It is the case of the appellant that consequently the ICSE Board, New Delhi, granted them certificate of affiliation on 25.11.1980 as a result of which the appellant-college started imparting education in two wings, viz. a wing attached to the ICSE Board, and another with the U.P. State Board.

6. As the time passed further, the management of the appellant noted that the strength of the students taking the course run by the U.P. State Board was going down rapidly. Whereas, in 1995-96 the students enrolled with the U.P. State Board were in the range of 1800-1900, by the academic year 2000-01 the number of such students went down to just about 700. It also noticed that it was becoming uneconomical to run the U.P. State Board Section. The management, therefore, thought that it would be advisable to close down the U.P. State Board Section.

19. It was submitted on behalf of the appellants that the respondents have not objected to the appellant starting classes which are to be affiliated to the ICSE course. What the State is insisting upon, is that alongwith the ICSE classes the appellant ought to run the classes for the U.P. State Board course also. It was therefore, submitted on behalf of the appellant that the appellant was required to take this decision basically because they found that the parents of the students had a preference for the ICSE course. ICSE board is also listed as an examining body under the Delhi Education Act, 1973, and as such the U.P. State Board had no objection. What is important is imparting good education to the students and there was nothing wrong in accepting the aspirations of the parents and the students to shift to the ICSE board.

29. We have noted the submissions of the counsel for the parties. As a matter of fact, the State of U.P. or the U.P. State Board did not have any objection as such to the starting of the ICSE course by the appellant society. What they were insisting was that the course run by the U.P. State Board also should be run simultaneously. With respect to these submissions of the respondents it was pointed out by the appellant that the parents were expressing their preference for the ICSE course, the number of students opting for the State board course in the appellant's school and college was dwindling, and the appellant was finding it uneconomical to run both the courses, since from 1993 it was not receiving any grants from the State Government. In any case the appellant had expressed willingness to continue the services of the teachers, who were teaching the State Board's Course, and it appears that some of the teachers who were earlier teaching in the State Board Syllabus have been continued in the appellant institution for ICSE Course. It is also to be noted that though for over seven years the course of the U.P. State Board is not being run by the appellant institution, it has offered to restart the course once again. In view of this scenario in the facts of the present case, it would be rather academic to go into the controversy which is raised before us. All these proceedings can be disposed of by giving appropriate directions to the U.P. State Board and the appellants.