Srinagar, June 25 -- The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has upheld the authority of the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) to prescribe and enforce the use of its own textbooks in affiliated private schools.

Dismissing an appeal filed by the J&K Private Schools United Front against the Union Territory administration and JKBOSE, the ruling settles a long-running dispute over textbook selection in private schools across the former State, where parents had alleged that some institutions were forcing them to buy costly private publishers' books, resulting in an avoidable financial burden.

A Division Bench comprising Justices Sindhu Sharma and Shahzad Azeem affirmed an earlier judgment of a Single Judge that had r...