Constitution of India – Arts.12, 226 – Writ petitions filed by the appellants-teachers alleging wrong-doings w.r.t actions taken against them by the respondent-Air Force School – Division Bench of the High Court held that the said School is not a ‘State’ within the meaning of Art.12 thus, writ petitions u/Art.226 were not maintainable – Challenge to: Held: Per Abhay S. Oka, J. (for himself and Augustine George Masih, J.) Writ petitions not maintainable – No material to show that the Government or the IAF has any control over the management of the School – No evidence to show that it is actually financed by the IAF, as alleged or that it receives a grant from Public Funds – The School is not governed by any statutory regulations – The Education Code, which applies to the School, does not have any statutory sanction or force – It is issued under the authority of the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the IAF Educational and Cultural Society – The Society is a non-profit making welfare association and the School is a non-public fund School – The finance is arranged from the fees collected from students and the air force personnel make a contribution through their welfare fund – There is no control by the Central Govt. or the Ministry of Defence over the running or management of the school – The dayto-day control is with the School Managing Committee – Further, even if pay scales applicable to all IAF schools are determined by the IAF, that by itself will not amount to pervasive control by the IAF over the functioning of the schools – Relationship between the appellants and the said school is in the realm of private contract not involving any public law element – View taken by the Division Bench that the School/Society is not a ‘State’ within the meaning of Art.12 and thus, writ petition u/Art.226 was not maintainable, upheld [Paras 23, 21, 24] – Per Ahsanuddin Amanulla, J. (Dissent) Writ petitions are maintainable – The School discharges a public function of imparting education – IAF has full and all-pervasive control over the management of the School, inclusive of disciplinary powers as also the power to terminate employment – Control exercised by the IAF, and by extension the Government of India, on the working of the School is not merely regulatory in nature but deep and pervasive – In every sphere of activity relating to the School, the funding consists substantially of funds traceable to the public exchequer – The fact that the land on which the School building stands belongs to and was constructed with the funds of the IAF establishes the financial support enjoyed by the School from the IAF – The Committee/School would come within the ambit of ‘authority’ and also under ‘other authorities’ as employed in the Art.12 and amenable to writ jurisdiction u/Art.226 of the Constitution – Impugned orders set aside. [Paras 7, 9, 12, 25, 28, 30]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Divya Pandey. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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