The First Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday granted permission to an organisation representing educationists and education activists to file an appeal against the Single Judge order staying the operation of the recommendations Justice Govindarajan Committee appointed by the State government to fix fee structure in private schools. Chief Justice M. Yusuf Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam permitted P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System, to file the appeal.
The Single Judge on September 14 gave an interim injunction on a petition filed by the Federation of Association of Private Schools in Tamil Nadu. According to Mr. Babu, the order of the Single Judge was “a nullity on the ground that none of the persons who will be vitally affected by the order was heard by the Court….”
He said in this case the persons who would be vitally affected by any order of the High Court would be the students and their parents and not the State government or the committee.
In support of his case, Mr. Babu recalled a Supreme Court judgment that “a High Court ought not to decide a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution without the persons who will be vitally affected by its judgment being before it as respondents or at least by some of them being before it as respondents in a representative capacity.”
He said the court had ignored the dictum of the Supreme Court that all persons likely to be affected by the outcome of the writ petition should be made parties to the writ petition and passed an order without hearing any student or a parent.
Pointing out that his impleading petition was still pending and no counter had been filed, he sought permission to file an appeal as a third party and made a prayer for suspending the Single Judge order.
