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Private schools cannot make their own admission criteria: High Court - PTI/IBN7/HT/TOI

Private schools cannot make their own admission criteria: High Court

Press Trust of India

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said the Centre and the city government cannot "dilute" the the Right to Education Act by allowing unaided private schools to formulate their own criteria for nursery admissions. "You (HRD Ministry and Delhi government) cannot the dilute the provision of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (commonly referred to as Right To Education). By allowing them (schools) to formulate their own admission criteria, you are giving preference to one child over another, which is against the Act," a bench comprising Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain said.

The court also said the whole ongoing nursery admission process here would "go" if it decides to "quash" the notification issued on December 15, 2010 by the Directorate of Education (DoE) on behalf of Delhi government. Ashok Agarwal, appearing for NGO Social Jurist which has filed the PIL, said the notification has "given a totally free hand to all unaided recognised private schools to formulate their own nursery admission criteria based on categorisation of children....".

"This is contrary to Section 13 of the Act which says that there would be no screening process of either parents or of kids and no child would be discriminated against. It also provided that admission would be taken by way of draw of lots and the neighbourhood would be only criteria," he said adding separate guidelines cannot be framed by schools.

Despite the provision being clear, the schools have been formulatin...

Private schools cannot make their own admission criteria: High Court

Despite the provision being "clear", the schools have been formulating their own guidelines and according preferences on grounds such as religion, alumni and sibling. This is not permissible as it propagates discrimination, he said. The court would hear the case tomorrow also.

High Court talks tough on nursery admission norms- HT

Harish V Nair, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, January 24, 2013

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said it will not hesitate to quash the 2010 government notification on nursery admission rules if it violated the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Every year, the city’s private schools fix the admission criteria based on the 2010 notification. Its

quashing is likely to affect the ongoing admission process as the court held, “Students are being selected in accordance with the notification and even if the admission process has begun, the study session begins only in April”. The development comes a fortnight before the schools will release their first list.

A bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice VK Jain is likely to pronounce its verdict on Thursday. The bench made these strong remarks after lawyers of the Centre, Delhi government and the association of private schools failed to provide convincing replies to their pointed queries on the validity of the admission criteria being followed by the schools vis-à-vis the RTE.

The court was hearing a PIL that challenged the point system being followed by private schools as a “violation of the RTE Act”. Petitioner Ashok Aggarwal of NGO Social Jurist told the court that only distance should be allowed as a criteria and students should be selected through draw of lots. He argued that the criteria of sibling, alumni and first child were “discriminatory”.

The Centre had issued nursery admission guidelines for the entire country on November 23, 2010, giving private schools the liberty to formulate their own guidelines based on categorisation of children. The Delhi Government went a step further, allowing schools to form criteria like sibling, alumni etc.

Disallowing the plea of the association of private schools to hear out each school, the bench said: “If the government notification is quashed, schools guidelines will automatically stand quashed. We need not look into the guidelines of each school”. “The RTE Act supersedes all notifications. How could the state government amend the centre’s notification?” The bench asked.

HC order on nursery norms likely today- TOI

TNN | Jan 24, 2013, 01.48 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Indicating trouble for the city's private unaided schools, Delhi high court on Wednesday said unless the government's 2010 notification is in sync with the Right to Education Act, it might be quashed.

The notification has been relied upon by the schools to fix their admission criteria for nursery admissions and these have been challenged by an NGO in court.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain heard the petitioner NGO Social Jurist, the state government, the Centre and the association of schools at length on Wednesday while making it clear it won't hesitate to quash the notification if found arbitrary.

HC fixed Thursday for further hearing into the case when it might give a verdict on the validity of the notification, which has been challenged before the court on the ground that it permits schools to promote inequality and discriminate in admissions despite clear cut mandate of the RTE Act.

Appearing for the NGO advocate Ashok Aggarwal told HC that the RTE Act envisages just the "neighborhood criteria and draw of lots" as permissible ways to pick and choose candidates for admission, but the schools have come up with their own criteria leading to discrimination.

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Permalink Reply by Mudit Mathur on January 24, 2013 at 6:23pm

Verdict on plea challenging private schools criteria in Nursery admission is expected on Monday at 2pm

Justice VK Jain today reiterated that schools can't give preference to one child over the other. The moment you get criteria it becomes discriminatory

Lawyer from the school's side Shobha argued that it would be a contradiction to remove all the criteria and keep allow just distance

In case the court scraps DOE's notification then it would affect the ongoing admission process

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Permalink Reply by Anand on January 25, 2013 at 11:05am

@Stuti: One man's food is another man's poison. The rates for homes (rent/own) near good schools in the US are 4-5 times average rates elsewhere. If neighborhood becomes a sole criteria, I foresee an immediate effect in the immediate neighborhood. Either way it is a loose loose for one or the other community of parents.

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Permalink Reply by Aditi Gosavi on January 25, 2013 at 7:34pm

Absolutely, Anand. It was a relief reading yours and Stuti's posts. I had started feeling that I was one of the very few who were looking at the so-called reforms critically.