TNN | Updated: Mar 27, 2017, 02.11 AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government, while inviting applications for admissions to nursery, kindergarten and Class I, has imposed an upper age limit of 4, 5 and 6 years, respectively, on applicants. In 2016, the Delhi high court had stayed a similar move to impose an upper age limit on entry-level admissions in private unaided schools.

According to government officials, this age limit has been imposed "to ensure the children go into age-appropriate classes", saying that as per rules, a student of a specific age can only get into a certain class. "We cannot admit a 12-year-old to Class I, the child needs to go to Class VIII only," said Atishi Marlena, an adviser to the education minister.

However, the Right to Education mandates that children above the age of six need to be admitted in an "age-appropriate" class, putting no bar on the age limit of those under Class VI. "Where a child above six years of age has not been admitted to any school or, though admitted, could not complete his or her elementary education, then, he or she shall be admitted in a class appropriate to his or her age," reads Section 4 of the Act.

The Directorate of Education, too, in December last year, had specified that private unaided schools must not impose a bar on the upper age limit of those it is admitting in entry-based classes. "For admission in the pre-school, the Directorate of Education defined the minimum age as three years by March 31 of the year in which admission is being sought and there is no bar to admit the students above the minimum age fixed by the department," reads the circular released on December 19, 2016.

In February last year, the Delhi high court had stayed an admission notification of the government fixing an upper age limit for nursery admissions in private schools. The presiding bench of Justice Manmohan said the notification had "virtual retrospective effect" and curtailed the right of a child seeking admission.

Ashok Agarwal, an advocate and president of All India Parents Association, has criticised the government for imposing an age limit, calling it an anti-children move. "The government's move to apply an upper age limit last has been quashed by the high court, yet they are doing the same thing again this year. They are trying to put children out of schools. They should be bringing those out of the education system into schools, but putting an age bar will only keep out those wanting to get an admission. With this, they are violating the Right to Education, the Delhi School Education Act and the high court's ruling against age-limits," he said.