CBSE Affiliation Row At Saraswati Mandir School

Mumbai: A controversy surrounding Saraswati Mandir High School (SMHS), a government-aided institution in Mahim East, has come to light as a whistleblower has alleged irregularities and misuse of funds in the school’s attempt to obtain affiliation with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The Saraswati Mandir Education Society (SMEC), which is managed by the managing committee (MC), has categorically denied allegations.

SMHS, established in the early 1960s to serve the educational needs of middle and lower-middle-class families, introduced CBSE classes alongside its existing Secondary School Certificate (SSC) curriculum in 2013. While the state government permitted classes from Standard I to VIII, CBSE rules require separate infrastructure and special permission to offer Standards IX and X. The application for affiliation was ultimately rejected by the Board, but not before the school’s management allegedly spent over Rs75 lakh in a bid to secure the approval.

According to Dr Manohar Kamath, former vice-president of the SMHS governing council, the affiliation issue emerged in 2018 when students reached Standard VIII and the school needed to formalise its CBSE status. “CBSE Regulations unequivocally state that no society or institution can run two streams of study (e.g. SSC and CBSE) from the same premises,” Kamath told The Free Press Journal. “Some members of the managing council admitted that we were unlikely to receive affiliation under the existing conditions."

Kamath alleges that three members of the then MC — Satish Rajadhyaksha, Mohan Nerurkar, and trustee Anil Pailakode — brought in a liaison agent, Anupama Khaitan, to obtain the CBSE affiliation. “A sum of Rs30 lakhs as initial money was paid by cheque and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with her."

He further claimed that Khaitan “did some paperwork, arranged for a visit of the CBSE inspection team and continued her liaison work.”

The current MC, which assumed office in December 2021, informed The Free Press Journal that the previous committee had indeed entered into agreements with two firms owned by Khaitan – Paribhasha Educational Services and Shashwat Solutions – “for teachers’ training and other administrative services”.

The FPJ contacted Sanjay Sukhtankar, the school secretary, who confirmed that Rs23.58 lakh was paid under the first MoU in 2019, and another Rs31 lakh was paid under a second agreement signed in March 2021.

Sukhtankar said that the current MC became aware of Dr Kamath’s police complaint in March 2022 and “resolved to give full cooperation and assistance to the police in the investigation”. In January 2023, it received a notice from the Charity Commissioner’s office asking for information. “We complied with the request and furnished the necessary documents,” Sukhtankar said.

Following this, an inspector from the charity commissioner’s office submitted a report in August 2023, stating, “The previous management was prima facie responsible for the loss the Society suffered”. However, the inspector added that he was not a qualified accountant and could not quantify the loss.

Acting on his recommendation, the committee passed a resolution in December 2023 to appoint N A Rajadhyaksha as a special auditor. “The audit report was received in June 2024 and accepted,” Sukhtankar said, adding that it then passed on documents to their lawyer “to file a case against the members of the previous managing committee”.

However, before any legal action could be initiated, the society received a summon in September 2024 from the Joint Charity Commissioner’s office informing them that Dr Kamath had filed a case under Section 33(4) of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act to appoint a special auditor. “Since this application is pending, the MC has not been able to initiate action according to the Special Audit Report,” Sukhtankar noted.