Page 1, 30th May 1958
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KERALA BILL:
Supreme Court decision
THE Supreme Court of India has given its decision on the controversial Schools Bill passed by the Communistdominated assembly of Kerala. President Rajendra Prasad referred the Bill to the Court before deciding whether to sign it, as he has to do before it can become law; but he is not legally bound by the Court's decision, which is an advisory opinion.
The Supreme Court condemned a clause in the Bill which would make Government recognition of private schools-and hence their right to State subsidies-conditional upon their compliance with the Bill's provisions, on the grounds that the clause was in violation of the right of minorities to establish and operate their own schools as guaranteed by the Constitution.liw
o ev er, all seven members of the Court declared valid several provisions that were strongly opposed by Catholics, including: The appointment of private school teachers from a panel sct up by the State Government;
The payment of private school teachers' salaries directly by the sGchooveorlsn;ment rather than by the
The prohibition of the transfer of schools from one manager to
arith The Court noted that some of these provisions made serious inroads into educational rights and came " perilously close to violating these rights.
Appearing before the Court on behalf of the Communist Government of Kerala was the English lawyer, Mr, D. N. Pritt, who argued that Christians in Kerala could not claim the educational rights guaranteed by the Constitution to minorities because they were not a minority. This was so since they accounted for 25 per cent. of the State's population.
Even if Kerala Christians were recognised as a minority. Mr. Pritt continued, they had forfeited their minority rights by opening their schools to members of other faiths. The Court did not accept Mr. Pritt's argument.
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