Justified To Be Construed As Rural Area: Kerala High Court Directs Tahsildar To Issue Rural Certificate To 12 Year Old For Her School Admission

The Kerala High Court upheld that if the area in question is not notified as "Urban" under the Delimitation Act or the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, the candidate is entitled to a Rural Certificate. 

Justice Devan Ramachandran while delivering the judgment observed that as long as the area is within a Panchayat, as notified under Section 10(3)(A) of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, it will be justified for the petitioner to claim that said area be construed as a "Rural" one

A girl aged 12 years approached the Court earlier this month seeking a direction to the Tahsildar to issue her a certificate to the effect that the School in which she was earlier studying is situated in a rural area so that she can seek admission to the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya.

Background: 

Advocate Manas P Hameed appeared on behalf of the petitioner and submitted that as per the admission policy of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, only a student who was earlier enrolled in a school located in a "rural area" can obtain admission therein by transfer. 

On this ground, the petitioner alleged that unless the tahsildar issues her a certificate to that effect, she would be denied admission; and consequently, her future would be jeopardized. Hence, she prayed that the Tahsildar, who is the jurisdictional officer for the area where her former school is situated, be directed to issue a 'Rural Certificate' at the earliest.

The Counsel for the petitioner inferred from the decision of the Court in a previous case with a similar factual matrix that if the area where the earlier School situates is not notified as an 'Urban Area' under the Delimitation Act or under the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, the Tahsildar is bound to grant his client a 'Rural Certificate", without relying on the Census data.

According to the petitioner, she was denied a Rural Certificate solely because as per the 2011 census, the area where the earlier School was situated is 'Urban'. However, she contended that this was irrelevant 

Government Pleader Sunil Kumar Kuriakose appearing for the respondents also agreed that going by the decision of the Court, the area where the School was located would be categorised as a Rural area. However, he argued that this was not a sufficient reason to categorise it as a Rural area, and that it had to be verified once again. 

Acting upon an interim order issued earlier by the Court, the Tahsildar had issued a provisional certificate to the petitioner. Based on this certificate, the Principal of Navodaya Vidyala had also offered provisional admission to the student. 

However, the petition urged that the school did not provide her with any benefits or facilities as that of the other children, treating her as a mere provisional student rather than a regular student. 

Observations of the Court

The Single Bench while allowing the petition, observed as follows:

'...as long as the area is within a Panchayat, as notified under Section 10(3)(A) of the Kerala  Panchayat Raj Act, it will be justified for the petitioner to claim that said area be construed as a "Rural" one. In fact, this is the same view that has been carried forward in judgment in W.P(C)No.26835 of 2015, wherein, another learned Judge of this Court has found that if the area in question is not notified as an "Urban" one under the Delimitation Act or the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, the candidate is entitled to a Rural Certificate.' 

Consequently. it was held that the certificate produced by the petitioner before the Principal from the Tahsildar shall be construed as being a final one and that her admission be regularized; she being thus granted all the benefits available to a regular student of the said School.

Title: X v. Ministry of Education & Ors.  

Click Here To Read The Order