In a relief to the National Public School (NPS) chain of institutions, the High Court of Karnataka has quashed the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) order of disaffiliating National Public Schools in Bengaluru and Mysuru, and also the criminal cases registered against chairman K.P. Gopalakrishna for allegedly “forging” certificates of minority status.
Justice Anand Byrareddy, in his April 5 order, allowed the petitions filed by Mr. Gopalakrishna, the National Education Trust (NET), which runs the schools, and the individual schools, while directing the CBSE to reverse its decision of disaffiliation of NET-managed schools.
Minority status
The CBSE had disaffiliated NPS institutions after the State Education Department officials lodged criminal cases against the chairman and the institutions after the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) had “disowned” signature of its official on the “minority status certificate” issued to the NPS institutions.
It was alleged that “forged” certificate was used to overcome admission of 25% seats under RTE, as minority institutions were exempted from the quota. The NET institutions claimed Malayalee linguistic minority status.
‘Difference in signature’
However, on verification of the photocopies of the certificates produced by the State authorities and the original certificate produced before the court, Justice Byrareddy said comparison made between the original, which bears the signature of NCMEI Deputy Secretary Sandeep Jain, and the alleged forged, “clearly indicate there is a marked difference in the signatures”.
The court declared that the “certificates that are said to have been issued to Mr. Gopalakrishna declaring institutions as linguistic minority institutions does actually bear the true and admitted signature of Mr. Jain, whereas the alleged forged certificate does not contain admitted and real signature of Mr. Jain”.
Pointing out that the institutions did not benefit from the “forged” certificates as the stay order of the High Court on admission under RTE quota was available to the institutions, the court said “no criminal case could be made out” against the institution and its head as no benefit from so called forged certificate was derived even if the forgery can be attributed for argument’s sake.
Reputation of institution
The entire episode only results in the reputation of the schools and institutions run by the petitioners being besmirched, and the future of thousands of students being put in jeopardy by virtue of consequence of affiliation having been withdrawn by the CBSE on the ground of a complaint been lodged and being given wide publicity in the local press and nationwide. This damage cannot be easily undone...”
