The fate of over 1,000 students of a private school, Indian School of Learning, ISM Annexe, situated on ISM campus in Dhanbad, hangs in balance as the district administration has instructed it to vacate the campus before August 20 while teachers and students are not ready to do so.

On Sunday, parents of over 200 students held a meeting on the 3-acre school campus during which they decided to lodge their protest in a Gandhian way through dharnas, demonstrations and fasting.

Indian School of Learning, ISM Annexe, with Classes I to XII, is affiliated under CBSE, and has over 1,000 students and 48 teachers.

Trouble erupted in 2013, when the 24-year-old land lease of the school management expired in 2013 and the ISM, it was said, did not want to renew it as it was facing a space crunch. Though the school management and ISM moved district court, the latter won. Then, the school management, led by secretary Shobha Sinha, had on August 1, 2015, given an affidavit to ISM that they would vacate campus by March 31, 2016.

Meanwhile, a rift arose in the school management committee, as some teachers and members rose up against Sinha. Though rounds of meetings were held among two school management factions and ISM, under the district administration's mediation, no consensus could be arrived at. Finally, Sinha left the school and established her own, JK Sinha Memorial School at Dhaiya, welcoming students to join her in an advertisement in January 2016.

The faction that stayed back appointed Anil Kumar as principal. Parents and teachers of the old school went on protesting against eviction orders.

Last week, in one such meeting, Dhanbad subdivisional officer Mahesh Kumar Santhalia gave the school a deadline of August 20 to vacate.

But, on Sunday, the protesters were adamant. District vice-president of BJP Manas Prasun, who chaired the meeting, said: "We will oppose any move to vacate the school building. Our stand is entirely based on humanitarian grounds. There is no alternative school for children in nearby areas."

Pramod Chaurasia of Barmasia who took part in the meeting, said: "Where will our children go in mid-term? Shobha Sinha's new school has six-seven rooms and can't manage 1,000 students."

"If evacuation was a must, it should have been done at the end of the academic session and not in the middle," said a parent Krishna Chatterjee.

Contacted, principal of the school Anil Kumar said they were not aware of the parents' meeting on Sunday.

But, he stressed that as teachers of the school, they would challenge the decision of the district court in Jharkhand High Court and bring a stay on the district administration diktat to vacate the building before August 20.