Allahabad High Court
State Of U.P. Thru. Secy. Dept. Of ... vs Kamleshwar Prasad And Another on 15 September, 2022
Bench: Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, Saurabh Srivastava
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Court No. - 2
Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 177 of 2022
Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Secy. Dept. Of Social Welfare Govt. Of U.P. Civil Secrt. Lko. And Others
Respondent :- Kamleshwar Prasad And Another
Counsel for Appellant :- C.S.C.
Counsel for Respondent :- Mohd. Waris Farooqui
Hon'ble Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya,J.
Hon'ble Saurabh Srivastava,J.
Heard learned State Counsel for the appellants-State authorities and Sri Mohd. Waris Farooqui, learned counsel representing the respondent No.1-petitioner.
(C.M.Application No. 1 of 2022)
Having regard to the averments made in the application seeking condonation of delay and having heard the learned counsel for the parties, we are satisfied that the delay in preferring the special appeal has sufficiently been explained.
Accordingly, the application is allowed and the delay in preferring the special appeal is hereby condoned.
(Order on memo of Special Appeal)
This intra-court appeal filed under Chapter VIII Rule 5 of the Rules of the Court lays a challenge to the judgment and order dated 07.04.2022, passed by the learned Single Judge whereby Writ-C No.1005619 of 2013 has been disposed of with the direction to the District Social Welfare Officer, Lucknow to remit the amount admissible to the respondent No.1-petitioner against the scholarship/fee reimbursement.
Respondent No.1-petitioner had taken admission in a privately managed unaided institution for pursuing his Bachelor of Computer Application (B.C.A.) Course and studied the said course in academic year 2011-12 and 2012-13.
The claim of the respondent No.1-petitioner is that an amount of Rs.64,300/- as scholarship/freeship under the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme of the Government for the academic year 2011-12 and 2012-13 may be ordered to be reimbursed to him. Since the said amount was not being paid to the respondent No.1-petitioner, he filed Writ-C No. 1005619 of 2013 with the prayer to issue a direction to the authorities of the department concerned to provide him scholarship to the tune of Rs. 64,300/-.
The stand taken by the appellants-State authorities before the learned Single Judge was that the Post Matric Scholarship in the State of U.P. is governed in terms of the Government Order dated 06.07.2011 which was prevalent at the relevant point of time. It was further the case of the appellants-State authorities that as per said Government Order dated 06.07.2011, priority amongst the students studying in Government colleges, Government aided privately managed colleges and privately managed unaided colleges, was fixed and accordingly fee was to be reimbursed firstly to those students who studied in Government Colleges and thereafter to those students who studied in Government aided colleges and lastly to those students who studied in privately managed non-aided colleges. The State authorities took a stand that the scholarship/fee reimbursement scheme is 100% funded by the Government of India. The State authorities further argued before the learned Single Judge that the entire budget meant for running the fee reimbursement scheme was utilized in the relevant academic year as per priority fixed in the Government Order dated 06.07.2011 and since the respondent No.1-petitioner was studying in the privately managed unaided institution, the entire amount of budget got exhausted and though he was eligible and entitled, reimbursement could not be made.
Learned Single Judge though has considered the aforesaid stand taken by the appellants-State authorities, however, has opined that the benefit of fee-ship/scholarship cannot be denied to the respondent No.1-petitioner only on account of lack of funds by the State.
The aforesaid view, in our considered opinion, taken by the learned Single Judge appears to be erroneous, inasmuch as the scheme embodied in the Government Order dated 06.07.2011 itself provided for reimbursement in accordance with the priority of the students as contained in the said policy. The policy also provided that the budget for administering the policy is fixed and further that the scheme is funded 100% by the Central Government.
It is noticeable that the scheme of the State Government for grant of freeship/scholarship as embodied in the Government Order dated 06.07.2011 was not challenged before the learned Single Judge. Any scheme if goes unchallenged, in our considered opinion, has to be administered in terms of the scheme itself. The Post Matric Scholarship Scheme though is a welfare scheme, however, for the said purpose, it cannot be expected that State will spare unlimited budget.
It is not the case of the respondent No.1-petitioner that he has been denied the benefit of freeship/scholarship in derogation of the scheme of the State Government embodied in the Government Order dated 06.07.2011.
For the reasons aforesaid, we do not find ourselves in agreement with the judgment and order dated 07.04.2022, passed by the learned Single Judge in Writ-C No. 1005619 of 2013.
Accordingly, the Special Appeal is allowed. The judgment and order dated 07.04.2022, passed by the learned Single Judge is hereby set aside and the writ petition itself is dismissed.
However, there will be no order as to costs.
Order Date :- 15.9.2022
Sanjay
