NEW DELHI: Making radical changes that completely take away discretionary powers from private-unaided schools, lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung late on Wednesday released in nursery admission norms for 2014-15 that abolishes the 20% management quota and virtually ensures that schools would only admit children living within a radius of 6km.

Under the new guidelines, 70 points out of 100 in the open category seats have been assigned to the "neighbourhood' head, giving candidates who live up to 6km away from the school an unbeatable advantage over others. Kids who have a sibling studying in the school will get 20 points and five points each have been reserved for girls and wards of alumni.

The admission process will begin from January 15, 2014, a fortnight later than last year.

Schools are sure to protest against the new norms which leave them no room to manoeuvre. "I don't think this will go down well with private schools. Nursery admissions have been messed up. The modalities will be difficult to implement. We (private schools) will get together," said Jyoti Bose, principal, Springdales, Dhaula Kuan.

Jung has divided the total seats into categories beyond the standard 25% for economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups (EWS/DG). He reserves 5% seats for staff children and another five for girls (in co-educational schools). The remaining 65% are "open seats' for the general category.

With government fixing both the criteria and points distribution for admissions, children living in west and north will be at a disadvantage because these areas have far fewer schools that are considered "good'.

Reacting quickly, the National Progressive Schools Conference has called an "emergent meeting of the executive along with the former chairperson and life-members" on Thursday. "We would take a stand on the new norms at the meeting," said NPSC chairperson Ameeta Mulla Wattal.

Minority schools, in which the 25% EWS reservation is not mandatory, have been reminded that they need to reserve 20% for EWS if they have been allotted land by government agencies.

Also, schools "set up for specific government services like armed forces, paramilitary forces, central services, all India services...shall have the right to reserve seats for the wards". This means schools such as Sanskriti as well as convent schools would continue to have the right to reserve seats under special categories.

The process for nursery admissions has been a matter of much litigation over the last few years. In 2007, and again in 2010, lawyer-activist group Social Jurist had challenged in court the government's decision to allow schools to choose categories and assign points. It argued that inclusion of any category (or criterion) beyond the neighbourhood clause was a violation of the RTE Act.

In 2013, the Delhi high court ruled that the RTE Act was not admissible with respect to nursery admissions beyond the 25% EWS seats. The judgment was challenged and the matter is pending in Supreme Court. However, the HC's ruling brought the 2007 notification back into force, which included a provision for aggrieved people to appeal to the LG. Social Jurist duly made a representation to the LG to fixed admission norms, which was followed by a HC direction to him to decide.

The last date for Jung to decide was December 17. Meanwhile, Social Jurist protested against LG's decision to go with the existing system for the 2014-2015 session. The absence of a government added to the urgency. The LG's guidelines released on Wednesday incorporates much of what Social Jurist was demanding.

"We welcome this order issued by lieutenant governor where children from neighborhood get their right to education in a real sense for the first time. The guideline is based on point-system but neighborhood is the decisive factor and the right of children in the neighborhood can't be violated by the school management. Of course, we have to see the practical problems once the order is implemented," Social Jurist's Khagesh Jha said in a statement.