Allahabad HC upholds board secretary’s power to prescribe Class 10 and 12 textbooks

The Allahabad High Court has reaffirmed that the authority to prescribe textbooks for Classes 10 and 12 rests exclusively with the secretary of the Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Prayagraj.

The ruling came from a division bench of Justices Niraj Tiwari and Garima Prasad while deciding a petition filed by M/s Rajiv Prakashan, which had challenged an order issued by the Board secretary concerning textbook prescription.

In its Feb 19 decision, the court declined to set aside the contested order, holding that the Board secretary acted within the scope of statutory powers.

At the same time, the bench clarified that private publishers are free to print and sell books in the open market, provided they do not breach the Uttar Pradesh Course Books Act or any other applicable law.

The court disposed of the petition by relying on its earlier judgment delivered on April 15, 2014, observing that the present dispute was already settled by that precedent.

“We are of the opinion that the impugned order does not require any interference in this writ petition for the reason that it is the power and jurisdiction of the authority to prescribe textbooks for studies in high school and intermediate examinations,” the court stated.

“In case the petitioner is violating the provisions of UP Act No. 7 of 1979 or any other law, the State respondents are always at liberty to take recourse to the action contemplated therein,” the court observed.

“However, in case the petitioner is not committing any violation of the provisions of the Act or any other law, they cannot be restrained from publishing books or selling them in the open market which are not the prescribed textbooks of the Parishad. Even if such books are not up to the standard of the textbooks of the Parishad or are highly priced, the petitioner himself has to bear the consequences of his marketing efforts,” it added.

After reviewing the 2014 ruling, the bench stated that the “issue raised in the present petition is squarely covered by the aforesaid judgment” and accordingly disposed of the matter on similar terms.