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The State of Gujarat & Ors. vs. H.B. Kapadia Education Trust & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 147Decided 21 Feb 2023
Civil Appeal No. 2837 of 2022
Dinesh Maheshwari · Bela M. Trivedi

Background

H.B. Kapadia Education Trust, a Jain minority institution, ran a government-aided school in Gujarat where Mr. H.H. Kapadia served as Principal. When he turned 58, the Trust got permission to keep him on as Principal until 60, on condition that the Trust itself paid his salary. When the Trust later asked to extend his tenure beyond 60 with government grant-in-aid, the District Education Officer refused. The Trust challenged this refusal in the Gujarat High Court, arguing it violated its constitutional right under Article 30(1) to administer its own minority institution, and both the Single Judge and Division Bench ruled in the Trust's favour, ordering the State to pay years of back grant.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Article 30(1)'s right of minorities to administer their institutions is not an absolute right free of all law: conditions attached to government financial aid apply equally to minority and non-minority institutions alike, so long as they are secular conditions genuinely tied to proper use of the grant. Examining the applicable rules, the Court found that while the general Secondary Education Regulations (which set retirement at 58) do not apply to minority institutions, the older Grant-in-Aid Code does still apply to them for aid purposes, and that Code only funds staff up to age 58, extendable to 60 at the management's discretion: never beyond 60 with government money. Since the Trust was free to keep Mr. Kapadia on beyond 60 at its own expense but could not claim government funding for it, refusing the grant was neither discriminatory nor a violation of Article 30(1). The High Court's judgments were set aside and the State's appeal was allowed.

Lesson Learnt

A minority institution's constitutional right to run its own affairs does not entitle it to public funding on its own terms: conditions attached to government aid (like retirement-age rules for salary support) bind minority and non-minority institutions equally, and any choice to go beyond those conditions must be funded privately.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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