Court Can't Suggest Alternatives When An Educational Agency Has Already Taken A Policy Decision: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court has established that where a policy decision has been given effect to through a scheme announced by an educational agency, it would not interfere or suggest alternate policies for adoption by the said educational agency.

A Division Bench of Justice A.K.Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Mohammed Nias C.P. however permitted a student who attended an urban school to be accommodated in the rural quota of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya since several seats in the quota was found to be vacant despite the admission process being complete, and the student as found meritorious for admission otherwise. 

The petitioner was a Class V student in a school situated within the limits of Payyoli Municipality. He applied to be considered as a student hailing from a rural area under the prescribed quota for such students announced under the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya's scheme, which offered seats in the said institution to meritorious candidates hailing from both rural and urban areas in the ratio of 75%: 25%.

Although the petitioner was found meritorious for admission to the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, his application came to be rejected on close scrutiny since it was found that he had applied for the seat under the category earmarked for rural candidates, whereas his pursuit of studies in the Vth standard in a school situated in an urban area disentitled him to a seat under the rural category.

Aggrieved by the rejection of his application, the petitioner approached the Court. The Single Judge took note of the specific provisions of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme and found that since the petitioner pursued Class Vth in a school situated in an urban area, he was effectively disqualified from preferring an application as a rural candidate.

It was also found that the mere residence of the petitioner in a rural area did not confer on him any right to be included in the rural category for the purposes of admission to Jawahar Navodaya school under the Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme. The petition was therefore dismissed by the Single Judge.

The petitioner, therefore, moved the Court in appeal. Appearing for the appellant, Advocate Manas P. Hameed submitted that an overall reading of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya scheme would reveal that the underlying intention was to enable the students residing in a rural area to get better facilities for education in a Jawahar Navodaya school and hence, merely because the petitioner had attended a school in an urban area while residing in a rural area, the benefit under the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya scheme ought not to be denied to the petitioner.

The Court decided that although this submission was attractive at first blush, the same could not be accepted since in matters such as these, where a policy decision has been given effect to through a scheme announced by an educational agency, this Court shouldn't interfere and suggest alternate policies for adoption by the said educational agency.

"We find from a reading of the scheme that the scheme is unambiguous while stating that the criteria for determining whether a student hail from a rural or an urban area is whether or not the student is pursuing education in the Vth standard in a school situated in a rural area or an urban area. In other words, the criteria of residence of the student is wholly extraneous to the scheme aforesaid."

It was also found that the classification effected by the framers of the scheme between the students who attended school in an urban area and rural area respectively, within the bounds of reasonableness when tested against the principles informing classification for the purposes of Article 14. Thus, there was no reason to interfere with the judgment of the Single Judge.

Although this was ordinarily sufficient to dismiss the appeal, the Bench found that the admissions to the said school were over, but there were about 8 seats left unfilled in the rural quota.

Since the petitioner had been found meritorious for admission but thereafter denied admission only on account of his having failed the categorization as a rural candidate, the Court found it appropriate and in the interest of justice to direct the Principal, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, to forthwith admit the appellant herein to the VIth standard of the school under the rural category

However, it was clarified that the admission of the appellant to the school shall not be cited as a precedent in any future case.

Case Title: Minor v. Ministry of Education 

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Ker) 177

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