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Writ Petition No. 17366 of 2012.

H C J D A 38

JUDGMENT SHEET
IN THE LAHORE HIGH COURT LAHORE
JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

Writ Petition No. 17366 of 2012.

(Amama-e-Riaz Chaudhary vs. Chairman Punjab Boards, etc.)

J U D G M E N T

Date of hearing. 23rd of April, 2015.

Petitioner by Mian Tahir Maqsood, Advocate.

Mr. Mahboob Azhar Sheikh, Advocate alongwith

Respondents by Faqeer Mohammad Kaifi, Secretary Board of
Intermediate & Secondary Education, Lahore.

IBAD-UR-REHMAN LODHI J.:- This petition as also

W.P.No.28173 of 2012 (Sibt-e-Hassan Khan vs. Chairman, Punjab
Boards Committee & 2 others) are to be disposed of together, as in
both these matters, impugned decision vide Reference No. 208-SE/M,
dated 08.05.2012, has been challegned before this Court.

2. Both the petitioners, after passing Grade VIII Examination,

2012, at the age of 11-years, applied for their admission in Class IX,
which request was resisted by the respondent-educational authorities
on account of some stated policy that for admission as a student in
Class IX, the minimum age of the candidate must be 13-years.

3. By means of this Court’s orders dated 03.07.2012 and

19.11.2012, both the petitioners were directed to be registered as
students of Class IX provisionally; however, ultimate fate of the
registration of the students was directed to be subject to the decision of
the writ petitions.
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Writ Petition No. 17366 of 2012.

4. The report, as was called, did no add anything to the benefit of

the respondent-educational authorities, as no rule or any statutory
provision could have been referred by the respondents in support of
their contention that the minimum age for a student for getting
admission in Class IX must be 13-years and not less than that.

5. When learned counsel for the respondent-Board failed to satisfy

as against the contention of the petitioners in this regard, the Secretary
Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education, Lahore, was directed
to appear vide order dated 20.04.2015, who in compliance of such
directions, appeared today alongwith the Calendar of the Board of
Intermediate & Secondary Education, Lahore, containing the Act,
Regulations and Rules. He has referred Chapter 19 of the Calendar,
which deals with the enrolment and registration of students, but same
does not carry any such condition as to the minimum or maximum age
limit for a student desirous to get admission in Secondary School in
intermediate classes or other classes. In addition, he further placed on
record a copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Punjab Boards
Committee of Chairmen held on 28.05.2013, which unanimously
approved the addition of Section 1-A in Chapter 19 referred above in
the Calendar of the Board providing that a student getting admission in
an Institution in Class IX shall be of 12-years of age by 1st August of
the year of enrolment/registration with the Board.

6. Leaving aside the status of the Committee of the Chairmen, and

the effect of the decisions arrived at in the meeting of such committee,
it is again a fact that, even when in 2013, a date subsequent to the
refusal on the part of the respondents admitting the petitioners as
students in Class IX, for the reason that, they were below the age of
13-years, if some decision providing minimum age limit for student at
the time of admission in Grade IX is arrived at, the same would have
no bearing upon the entitlement of the petitioners for getting
admission as students in Class IX in the year, 2012, for, even in 2013,
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Writ Petition No. 17366 of 2012.

the committee of Chairmen decided the minimum age limit for such
students as 12-years and that too on 1st August of the year of
enrolment.

7. It is, thus, clear that in 2012, when the petitioners’ admission in

Class IX of an Educational Institution on the ground that they were
below the age of 13-years was resisted, the same was having no legal
backing and the admission, as was provisionally allowed to the
petitioners by means of this Court’s orders, referred to herein-above,
would be considered as regular admission.

8. The result of above discussion is that, both the petitions are

allowed by declaring that the petitioners, at the time of their desired
intention to be registered as regular students of Class IX in the year,
2012, were legally entitled to that, and the resistance on the part of the
respondents in this regard, by way of impugned decision vide
Reference No.208-SE/M, dated 08.05.2012, was having no legal
backing and the same is declared as such.

JUDGE

*M. AYYUB*