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Judgment
A.M. Shaffique, J.—Petitioner has approached this Court complaining about the inaction on the part of the educational authorities in not processing his application submitted under R. 2A(6) of Chapter V of the Kerala Educational Rules (for short ''KER''). Petitioner, being the Manager of a school having High School section alone, requested for starting standards 6 and 7 along with the High School section. But the authorities did not take any action on his request. Initially, during the pendency of this Writ Petition, Ext. P2 order was passed rejecting the application of the petitioner inter alia stating that no notification in terms of R. 2A(1) has been issued by the Government. Petitioner amended the Writ Petition challenging Ext. P2 as well. In the meantime, an interim order was passed by this Court on 28.05.2015 directing the educational authorities to consider the application of the petitioner in terms with R. 2A(6) of Chapter V of K.E.R. However, the same was again rejected on the ground that no notification was issued in terms of R. 2A(1). A contempt case was filed and in the meantime, the Government had withdrawn the said order and presently it is stated that the application is under consideration. The learned Government Pleader submits that, in order to submit an application under R. 2A(6) of Chapter V of K.E.R., it has to be preceded by a notification in terms of sub-r. (1) of R. 2A. This contention, according to me, will make sub-r. (6) of R. 2A redundant. Sub-r. (6) of R. 2A reads as under:
2A. Applications for opening of new schools and upgrading of existing schools-
(1) XXX
(2) xxx
(3) xxx
(4) xxx
(5) xxx
(6) Applications for permission to open a new standard in an existing school during any school year not involving the raising of the grade of the school shall be submitted to the District Educational Officer in charge of the area in Form 1 in triplicate."
It is true that, in terms of R. 2A of Chapter V, a notification has to be issued for the purpose of upgrading or starting a new school. That is not the situation here. For starting a new standard, a different procedure has been prescribed in terms of sub-r. (6) of R. 2A. Under such circumstances, an application submitted in terms of sub-r. (6) of R. 2A need not be preceded by a notification in terms of sub-r. (1) of R. 2A and consequently the educational authorities were bound to consider the application submitted by the petitioner under sub-r. (6) of R. 2A of Chapter V in terms of sub-rr. (3), (4) and (5). This has not been done. Therefore, consequential orders are absolutely bad and is liable to be set aside.
In the result, the Writ Petition is allowed as under:
i) Ext. P2 is set aside.
ii) There will be a direction to the respondents to consider the application of the petitioner under R. 2A(6) in terms of sub-rr. (3), (4) and (5) and pass appropriate orders within the periods specified thereunder.