A division bench comprising Justices S Saghir Ahmed and K T Thomas in their 15-page recent judgement said, ``the management's right to choose a qualified person as the headmaster of the school is well insulated by the protective cover of Article 30 of the Constitution and it cannot be chiselled out through any legislative or executive rule.''

The bench, while dismissing an appeal by a teacher in a Kerala school challenging management's decision to bring from outside a qualified person as headmaster, said the qualification and conditions of service alone could be fixed through a legislative or executive directive.

The management of the Emjay vocational higher secondary school in Calicut district of Kerala decided to appoint P M Aboobacker as the headmaster ignoring the seniormost teacher of the school NAhmad, who had filed the special leave petition in the Apex Court after a division bench of Kerala High Court had rejected his petition.

If the management finds a person possessing prescribed qualification, it had the right and freedom to appoint him as headmaster of the school even by bringing him from outside the state.

The school in question was declared as a Muslim minority community school on August 2, 1994, and was aided by the government under provision of Kerala Education Act, 1958.

Article 30 of the Constitution says ``all minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.''

The appellant contended that as the cause of action, appointment of the headmaster arose before the declaration of the school as a minority one, the management could not claim that they were not governed by Kerala Education Act.

The court rejected the plea saying when the government declared the school as a minority school, it hasrecognised a factual position that the school was established and is being administered by a minority community.

While dismissing the appeal, the bench said, ``headmaster is the key post in the running of the school. He is the hub on which all the spokes of the school are set around whom they rotate to generate result. A school is personified through its headmaster and he is the focal point on which outsiders look at the school.''

The court said, ``if the management of the school is not given very wide freedom to choose the personnel for holding such a key post, subject ofcourse to the restrictions regarding qualifications to be prescribed by the state, the right to administer the school would get much diminished.''