Plus Two: HC seeks Govt. opinion

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, JULY 11. A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday orally sought the Government's opinion on reviewing the Government's Order sanctioning 387 Plus Two schools in the State issued last year on a direction of the High Court.

The Bench comprising Mr. Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan and Mr. Justice G. Sasidharan asked the Additional Advocate General to make its stand on this issue before the court tomorrow when writ appeals and contempt of court petition in the Plus Two school case came up before the Bench today.

The court orally opined that the Government had not followed the guidelines issued by the High Court earlier while sanctioning the Plus Two schools afresh. The Bench orally observed that those schools which gained entry thorough `back door' should not be allowed to function. The High Court while setting aside the order granting Plus Two schools in June 2000 had directed the State Government to issue fresh list of schools after considering the entire applications.

The Bench had also directed the Government to strictly adhere to the seven Government Orders containing certain guidelines for sanctioning the Plus Two schools. In fact, the court had quashed the earlier Government Order on the ground that the Government did not follow these guidelines.

Later, a single judge had criticised the Government for not complying with these guidelines while issuing the fresh order. The single judge had observed that the granting of 378 Plus Two schools was illegal and arbitrary as the guidelines prescribed in the seven Government Orders had not been adhered to.

The single judge had refrained from setting aside the fresh order in view of the fact that the classes had already begun and that students already admitted would be affected if the court quashed the fresh order.

The judge had made the observations while dismissing a writ petition challenging the fresh order. In fact, in a statement filed in response to the writ petition, Mr. K. Jayakumar, the then Secretary, General Education, had said that the State Government had followed the various Government Orders `in spirit.'

He had submitted that the 1,429 applications had been sent to the District Level Committee for scrutiny, instead of the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education. This was because the Directorate had earlier scrutinised the applications before issuing the original order on the grant of Plus Two schools.

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