MUMBAI, Sept. 2 -- Seventy-six schools in the Konkan division will continue to function after the Bombay High Court restrained the Maharashtra school education department from acting on government resolutions that had put them on a list of institutions facing closure. The court said shutting the schools "without granting an opportunity of hearing was violative of principles of natural justice." A division bench of Justices R I Chagla and Firdosh Pooniwalla also directed the department to remove the 76 schools from the lists attached to the resolutions and said no action under them could be taken against the institutions. The schools had approached the HC challenging three government resolutions issued by the school education department on April 1 and 2. The government resolutions covered hundreds of primary, secondary and higher secondary schools across seven districts of the Konkan revenue division that were declared ineligible for government grant-in-aid. The resolutions required the affected schools to submit proposals under the Maharashtra Self-Finance Schools (Establishment and Regulation) Act, 2012, and become permanently self-financed by April 30. Schools that failed to do so faced cancellation of recognition, while their students were to be shifted to nearby schools. The petitioners pointed out that the Aurangabad and Kolhapur benches of the HC had already granted relief to schools in similar circumstances, holding that such action could not be taken without giving the institutions an opportunity to be heard. After the bench concurred with the view taken by the earlier orders, additional government pleader informed the court that the government will issue notices to the schools, hear them and then pass appropriate orders. The court accepted the statement and ordered the department to fix a schedule of hearing and inform the schools. The bench also ordered that the decisions in each case be communicated to the respective managements of the schools within a week of being passed....