PESHAWAR, Feb 1: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday dismissed four writ petitions filed by leading private educational institutions and declared as legal the notifications to grant fee concession to siblings studying in same school.

The bench declared the Education Code, 1935, under which the impugned notifications were issued, a valid legal instrument.

The petitions of educational institutions were filed by City School (Pvt) Limited, Institute of Learning, Education Services (Pvt) Limited (Beaconhouse School System), and Quaid-i-Azam Public School.

These petitioners contended that Article 106 of Chapter IV of the Education Code, dealing with fee concession to sibling studying in same school was in violation to the Constitution as well as existing laws related to private educational institutions. Their counsel argued that the said code was never adopted in subsequent legislation after the creation of Pakistan and the government could not issue any notification under it. They pointed out that the education code was not mentioned in the Pakistan Adaptation of Existing Laws, 1947; West Pakistan Laws (Adaptation) Order, 1964; Federal (Adaptation) Laws Order 1975; and NWFP (Adaptation) Laws Order 1975.

Advocates Shahnawaz Khan, Tariq Jawed and Farmanullah Khattak appeared for the parents, Advocate Lal Jan Khattak represented the provincial government and Ms Shakeela Khan represented the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

They argued that the said code was a valid legal instrument as it had referred to a regulation under which it was formulated. They contended that after partition, amendments were made in different sections of the code which meant that the government had adopted it. Similarly, in Article 268 of the Constitution such like regulations were given protection.