look news india
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has struck down the state government's new rule of February 9 exempting self-financed private schools operating within a radius of one km of government and aided schools from RTE (Right to Education) admissions.
In its order, a division bench of Chief Justice Upadhyay and Justice Borkar said that the government notification is violative of Article 21 of the Constitution and the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) provision of 2009. The notification is hereby quashed.
The court said that some private unaided schools had admitted students before the notification was suspended in May. These admissions will not be cancelled, but the school will have to ensure that twenty-five per cent quota of seats under RTE is filled.
The court had on May 6 put an interim stay on the decision to exclude unaided schools from the admission process for 25 per cent seats reserved for students from reserved and disadvantaged categories under the Right to Education, making it clear that any rule or change must be subject to the basic law.
The government later issued a revised order clarifying admissions as per the earlier process. Some schools had approached the court claiming that in the backdrop of the revised rules, children from the open category were given admission in RTE without reservation. They sought a review of the court's stay order. The court, taking their intervention, ordered the government to start the process, but not to give admissions. Information was sought on how many seats have been filled.
The government lawyer told the court that the affidavit could not be filed as the private unaided school has not yet given information about how many students of the open class have been admitted on RTE seats, even though it has been open for one and a half months. The court expressed displeasure over the role of the government.
