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.
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, 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.