r APHC010486302025 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI ' (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER^ TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE K.SREENIVASA WRIT PETITION NO: 25249 OF 2025 S;yS a -•«. 3: o REDDY Between: Sri Krishna Darmaraju Committee Aided Correspondent Smt. V. Suseelamma, D/o. 74 years, R/o. D.No.24-1-497, Rajagari Street Nellore District. Elementary School, Rep. by its Late Venkatasubbaiah, aged about Dargamitta, Nellore, SPSR ...Petitioner AND 1. The State of Andhra Pradesh, Rep. by its Principal Secretary, School Education Department, Secretariat, Velagapudi, Guntur District. 2. The Commissioner and Director of School Education, Vidyabhavan, Mangalagiri, Guntur District. 3. The Regional Joint Director of School Education, 4. The District Education Officer, Nellore, SPSR 5. The Mandal Education Officer, District. Guntur, Guntur District. Nellore District. Nellore Mandal, Nellore, SPSR Nellore ...Respondents Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution circumstances stated in the affidavit filed therewith, the High Court pleased to issue Writ, Order or Direction one of India praying that in the may be in the nature of WRIT OF MANDAMUS declaring the inaction of the respondents in permitting the petitioner school to fill up the 2 Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) are vacant as illegal, arbitrary, unlawful, violative of Art. 14 Posts, which 16 and 21 of Constitution of India and also violative of the provisions of the Right to Education Act and consequently direct the respondents to permit the petitioner school to fill up the vacancies of 2 Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) Posts in the interest of justice. lA NO: 1 OF 2Q2fi Petition under Section 151 CPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court may be pleased to direct the respondents to permit the petitioner school to fill up the vacancies of 2 Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) Posts, pending disposal of the above petition. Counsel for the Petitioner: SRI TVS KUMAR Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION The Court made the following order: writ IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE K SREENIVASA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO: 25249/2025 APHC010486302025 m [3327] Between: 1.SRI KRISHNA DARMARAJU COMMITTEE AIDED REP. ELEMENTARY CORRESPONDENT SMT. V. SUSEELAMMA, D/0. LATE VENKATASUBBAIAH, AGED ABOUT 74 YEARS, R/0. D.NO.24-1-497, RAJAGARI STREET, DARGAMITTA, NELLORE, SPSR NELLORE DISTRICT. SCHOOL, BY ITS ...PETITIONER AND 1.THE STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH, REP. BY ITS PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, SCHOOL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, SECRETARIAT, VELAGAPUDI, GUNTUR DISTRICT. 2.THE COMMISSIONER AND DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL EDUCATION, VIDYABHAVAN, MANGALAGIRI, GUNTUR DISTRICT. 3.THE REGIONAL JOINT DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL EDUCATION, GUNTUR, GUNTUR DISTRICT. 4.THE DISTRICT EDUCATION OFFICER, NELLORE, SPSR NELLORE DISTRICT. 5.THE MANDAL EDUCATION OFFICER, X NELLORE MANDAL, NELLORE, SPSR NELLORE DISTRICT. V. SUSEELAMMA, D/0. LATE VENKATASUBBAIAH, AGED ABOUT 74 YEARS, R/0. D.NO.24-1-497, RAJAGARI STREET, DARGAMITTA, NELLORE, SPSR NELLORE DISTRICT. SCHOOL, BY ITS ...PETITIONER AND 1.THE STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH, REP. BY ITS PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, SCHOOL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, SECRETARIAT, VELAGAPUDI, GUNTUR DISTRICT. 2.THE COMMISSIONER AND DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL EDUCATION, VIDYABHAVAN, MANGALAGIRI, GUNTUR DISTRICT. 3.THE REGIONAL JOINT DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL EDUCATION, GUNTUR, GUNTUR DISTRICT. 4.THE DISTRICT EDUCATION OFFICER, NELLORE, SPSR NELLORE DISTRICT. 5.THE MANDAL EDUCATION OFFICER, X NELLORE MANDAL, NELLORE, SPSR NELLORE DISTRICT. ...RESPONDENT(S): Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed therewith, the High Court may be pleased to issue Writ, Order or Direction one in the nature of WRIT OF MANDAMUS declaring the inaction of SRK, J WP No.25249 of 2025 2 the respondents in permitting the petitioner school to fill up the 2 Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) Posts, which are vacant as arbitrary, unlawful, violative of Art.14, 16 and 21 of illegal Constitution of India and also violative of the provisions of the Right to Education Act and consequently direct the respondents to permit the petitioner school to fill up the vacancies of 2 Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) Posts in the interest of justice and to pass Counsel for the Petitioner: 1.T V S KUMAR Counsel for the Respondent(S): 1.GP FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION SRK, J WP No.25249 of 2025 , t The Court made the following ORDER: This writ petition came to be filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking the following relief; appropriate Writ the nature of Writ of Mandamus inaction of the respondents in more ...to issue an particularly in declaring the permitting the petitioner school to fill up two Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) Posts, which are arbitrary, unlawful, violative of vacant as illegal, 16 and 21 of Constitution of India and also Art.14, violative of the provisions of the Right to Education consequently direct the respondents to Act and permit the petitioner school to fill up the vacancies of 2 Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) Posts” 2 Heard Sri T. V. S. Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner learned Assistant Government Pleader for School Education. and During hearing, learned Assistant Government Pleader for School Education as well as learned counsel for the petitioner involved in this Writ Petition is earlier orders of this Court in W.P.No.30927 3. would submit that the issue squarely covered by of 2022 and batch, dated 05.01.2023, wherein a learned single detailed Common Order. Operative Judge of this Court passed a portion of the said order reads as under; of the above stand taken by the “In view Government, all the Writ Petitions are disposed of with the following directions: SRK, J WP No.25249 of 2025 4 i) The respondent-authorities are hereby directed to permit the petitioners-institutions to fill all the Aided vacancies in terms of G.O.Ms.No.1, Education, dated 01.01.1994 and also as per the Schedule prescribed under Sections 19&25 of the Act, 2009; ii) In future also, whenever vacancies arise, the institutions have to make applications to the Competent authorities for filling up the vacancies; iii) On such applications, the Competent authorities shall inform the institution about the availability of qualified surplus staff, within a period of four (04) weeks from the date of application and allot said surplus staff on permanent basis; iv) If surplus staff are not available, the Competent authority shall inform the same and permit the petitioners-institutions to fill up the vacancies in accordance with the above said Rule, preferably within a period of two (02) months; v) So far as minority institutions are concerned, the above procedure is not applicable insofar as allotment of surplus staff are concerned, in view of the Judgments of Division Bench of this High School, Zamisthanpur V. Government of Andhra Pradesh and Others, (2002(1) ALD 96) and Ester Axene Res. High School and Others V. State of Andhra Pradesh and Others, (MANU/AP/0045/2019). up Court rendered in Modern SRK, J WP No.25249 of 2025 vi) The entire exercise shall be completed by the respondent-authorities within a period of three (03) months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.” 4. In view of the same and for the reasons alike in the aforesaid order, this Writ Petition is also disposed of in terms of the said order. There shall be no order as to costs. Registry is directed to attach the copy of the order dated 05.01.2023 passed by this Court in W.P.No.30927 of 2022 to this order. As a sequel thereto, miscellaneous petitions, if any, shall stand closed. Sd/- N NAGAWIMA ASSISTANT REGISTRAR //TRUE COPY// SECTION OFFICER To, 1. The Principal Secretary, School Education Department, State of Andhra Pradesh, Secretariat, Velagapudi, Guntur District. 2. The Commissioner and Director of School Education, Vidyabhavan, Mangalagiri, Guntur District. 3. The Regional Joint Director of School Education, Guntur, Guntur District. 4. The District Education Officer, Nellore, SPSR Nellore District. 5. The Mandal Education Officer, Nellore Mandal, Nellore, SPSR Nellore District. 6. One CC to Sri T V S Kumar, Advocate [OPUC] 7. Two CCs to GP for School Education, High Court of Andhra Pradesh [OUT] 8. Two CD Copies (Along with a copy of the order dated 05.01.2023 in WP.No.30927 of 2022) RAM HIGH COURT DATED:17/09/2025 ORDER WP.NO. 25249 OF 2025 2 5 SEP 2025 . Current iseciion pATCV\^? Co DISPOSING OFTHE WP WITHOUT COSTS HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE K.SURESH REDDY Writ Petition Nos.30927, 2888, 4938, 8014. 8197, 30548, 31010, 31039. 31730.33163, 35592.37415. 37467, 37508. 38250. 38924. 40923 and 42367 of 2022 COMMON ORD E R:- As the issue involved in all these writ petitions is inter-related, all these writ petitions are taken up together and are disposed of through this common order. The petitioners in these cases are the management of 2. private Schools. The grievance of the writ petitioners in all these Writ Petitions is the action of the official respondents in not permitting the petitioners-institutions to fill-up—the—vaeant-aided -posts fn their institutions in accordance with law. Facts in nutshell : 3. All the petitioners-institutions are private aided schools. All the institutions got recognition and thereafter, some posts have admitted into Grant-in-aid by the Government. The appointment of staff in the Aided institutions is governed by Rule-12 of G.O.Ms.No.1, Education, dated 01.01.1994. As per the terms in the said G.O., as and when vacancy arises, the Management shall make an application to the Competent authority, who in turn would grant permission to the 2 Management to constitute staff selection committee consisting of nominee of District Educational Officer (DEO) as well as the subject experts. Thereafter, the Management is free to make appoint from among the selected candidates after following procedure notification in of giving newspaper and also drafting the candidates from concerned employment exchange. (ii) Subsequently, the government issued a memo, dated 20.10.2004 imposing ban on recruitment of staff into Aided institutions. Thereafter, batch of Writ Petitions were filed i.e., W.P.No.9503 of 2005 and batch. After elaborate hearing, all the writ petitions were allowed and the ban imposed by the State government was set aside, Thereafter, the Government vide common order, dated 30.07.2013. filed Writ Appeal No. 216 of 2014, which was also dismissed by the Division Bench of this Court. Subsequently, the Government preferred Court of on 14.09.2015. As there is no other go, memo, vide Memo No.18836/SC.PS/A1/2012, dated 04.01.2017 permitting the Aided Institutions, who approached the Court to fill up the vacant posts by lifting the ban. appeal in S.L.P.No.8547 of 2014 before the Hon’ble Supreme India, which was also dismissed the Government issued (iii) Subsequently, the government issued G.O.Ms.No.40, School Education (PS) Department, dated 30.06.2017 and as per the said G.O., the Commissioner of School Education has issued proceedings in Rc.No.90/PS-1/2010-3, dated 20.07.2017 directing all the Regional Joint Directors of School Education and District Educational Officers to take necessary action in filling up all the vacancies in the schools. As per the said G.O., and consequential nd proceedings of the 2 respondent, dated 20.07.2017, all the petitioners-institutions requested the Competent authorities to permit them to fill up the vacant posts and to that effect, they made applications on various dates to the respective competent authorities. Subsequently, as per the instructions of the Government, (iv) nd respondent once again issued proceedings, dated 12.09.2017 the 2 Subsequently, the said keeping the recruitment in abeyance. proceedings were challenged in W.P.No.1041 of 2018 and this Court suspended the said abeyance proceedings, vide orders in I.A.No.1 of 2018 in W.P.No.1041 of 2018, dated 29.02.2020. Thereafter, all the petitioners-institutions made several applications to the Competent authorities seeking permission to fill up vacancies in Aided Schools. Till now, the Competent authorities did not take any decision or granted permission to fill the vacancies in Aided Schools. Aggrieved by the same, all these writ petitioners have come up with the batch of Writ Petitions. 4 4. Perused the entire material on record. This Court has also passed interim orders in most of the Writ Petitions directing the Competent authorities to permit the petitioners-lnstitutions to fill up vacancies in Aided Schools by considering the proposal submitted by them. In spite of interim orders, the Competent authorities have not permitted the petitioners-institutions to fill up the vacancies. Consequently, some of the petitioners-institutions filed contempt cases before this Court and they are pending. 5. Learned Government Pleader for School Education filed counter-affidavit, inter alia contending that Aided schools should maintain teacher-student ratio as 1:40 for filling up of vacancies and that the petitioners-institutions have to fill up vacancies in Aided schools as per the provisions prescribed under Rule 12(3)(A) of G.O.Ms.No.1, Education (PS2) Department, dated 01.01.1994. 6. Sri N.Subba Rao, learned Senior Counsel, scrupulously submitted that so far as the contention of the official respondents with regard to teacher-student ratio is concerned, the same is governed by the schedule prescribed under Sections 19 & 25 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (for short, ‘the Act of 2009). For better appreciation, the said Schedule is extracted hereunder: 5 THE SCHEDULE (See Sections 19 and 25 ) Norms and Standards for a School Sl.No. Item Norms and Standards Admitted children Number of teachers Number of teachers (a) For First class to 5 Class Up to Sixty Two th Between sixty-one to ninety Three Between Ninety one to one hundred and twenty Four Between one hundred and twenty one to two hundred Five Five Plus one Head Teacher Above one hundred and fifty Children Above two hundred Children Pupil-Teacher Ratio (excluding Head Teacher) shall not exceed forty. (1)At least one teacher per class so that there shall be at least one teacher each for- (b) For Sixth class to eight class and (i) Science Mathematics ; (ii) Social Studies ; (iii) Languages (2) At least one teacher for every thirty-five children Where admission of children is above one hundred- (i) A full time head teacher (ii) Part time instructors (3) for (A)Art Education (B) Health and Physical Education (C) Work Education 6 7. As such this being the Central Enactment, the State government is bound to follow the said Schedule. Further, so far as Rule-12(3)(A) of the Rules, 1993 is concerned, the petitioner- institutions have no objection to follow the Rule 12(3)(A) of the Rules, 1993. For better appreciation of the said provision, the same is extracted hereunder : 12.Appointment of Staff ‘‘Rule 12(3A) : Before iflling up of the aided teaching non-teaching posts, the educational agency shall necessarily obtain clearance from the Competent authority, to the effect that, there are no surplus posts in the concerned district, and if there are suitable surplus candidates, they should be deployed against the said per the subject requirements, competent authority shall however obtain the permission from the Government before issuing clearance for filling up ofany aided posts or vacancies as The 8. As per Rule 12 (3A) of the above said Rules, vacancies will be filled up by surplus candidates. At this juncture, learned Senior Counsel states that respondent authorities are not sending surplus candidates and they are sending candidates only by way of adjustment and thereafter, recalling them, which happened in many cases. At this juncture, this Court directed the learned Government Pleader to 7 inform the stand of the Government vdth regard to sub-rule 3(A) of Rule 12. In such circumstances, learned Government Pleader filed affidavit of the Commissioner of School Education. Para-5 of the said affidavit reads as follows : Further to submit that instructions were issued to all the Regional Joint Directors of School Education and District Educational Officers with a request to identify the surplus teachers/ existing teachers of defunct aided schools as per Rule 10(12) in G.O.Ms.No.l, Education, dated 01.01.1994 and transfer the surplus teachers as per Rule 10 (17) in G.O.Ms.No.l, Education, dated 01.01.1994 on a permanent basis and the same is under process”. In view of the above stand taken by the Government, all 9. the Writ Petitions are disposed of with the following directions ; The respondent-authorities are hereby directed to permit the petitioners-institutions to fill up all the Aided Education, dated i) vacancies in terms of G.O.Ms.No.1 01.01.1994 and also as per the Schedule prescribed under Sections 19 Et 25 of the Act,2009 ; 8 ii) In future also, whenever vacancies arise, the institutions have to make applications to the Competent authorities for filling up the vacancies ; On such applications, the Competent authorities shall inform the institution about the availability of qualified surplus staff, within a period of four (04) weeks from the date of application and allot said surplus staff permanent basis ; If surplus staff are not available, the Competent authority shall inform the same and permit the petitioners- institutions to fill up the vacancies in accordance with the above said Rule, preferably within a period of two (02) months ; So far as minority institutions are concerned, the above procedure is not applicable insofar as allotment of surplus staff are concerned, in view of the Judgments of Division Bench of this Court rendered in Modern High School, Zamisthanpur V. Government of Andhra Pradesh and Others^ and Ester Axene Res. High School and Others V. State of Andhra Pradesh and Others^. iii) on iv) V) ' 2002 (1)ALD96 " MANU/AP/0045/2019 9 The entire exercise shall be completed by the respondent-authorities within a period of three (03) months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order ; Vi) No order as to costs. Miscellaneous Petitions, if any, pending in this writ petition shall stand closed. K.SURESH REDDY,J 5’^'^ day of January,2023. Note : LR Copy to be marked B/o RPD 11 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI **** WRIT PETITION Nos.30927 of 2022 and Batch Between: P.L.K. Aided Elementary School Rep. by its Correspondent Smt.B.Mercy Bai Palakole, West Godavari District Andhra Pradesh. —Petitioner And The State of Andhra Pradesh Department of School Education 4^^ Block, 1^' Floor, Room No.267 Secretariat Buildings, Thullur Velagapudi, Guntur District-522 501 Represented by its Principal Secretary & three others —Respondents DATE OF ORDER PRONOUNCED 05.01.2023 SUBMITTED FOR APPROVAL THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.SURESH REDDY 1. Whether the copy of order may be marked to Law Reporters/Journals? Yes 2. Whether His Lordship wish to see the fair copy of the order? Yes K.SURESH REDDY, J. * THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.SURESH REDDY +WRIT PETITION Nos.3092/ of 2022 and Batrh % 05.01.2023 # Between: P.L.K. Aided Elementary School Rep. by its Correspondent Smt.B.Mercy Bai Palakole, West Godavari District Andhra Pradesh. —Petitioner And The State of Andhra Pradesh Department of School Education 4"'^ Block, 1^' Floor, Room No.267 Secretariat Buildings, Thullur Velagapudi, Guntur District-522 501 Represented by its Principal Secretary a three others —Respondents ! Counsel for the Petitioner : Sri N.Subba Rao '' Counsel for the Respondent GP for School Education < Gist: > Head Note: ? Cases referred: 1. 2002 (1) ALD 96 2. MANU/AP/0045/2019