New Delhi: In a fresh stand against private schools in Delhi found flouting the quota mandate for students from the economically weaker sections (EWS), the Delhi High Court Friday said “‘It is high time that the judiciary reaches the people and not wait for the people to reach out to the judiciary, as the poor kids are being forced in the instant set of petitions to knock the doors of the Court for availing their Fundamental Right to Education”.
While the Right to Education Act, 2009 (RTE), provides for free and compulsory education for all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right, under Section 12(1)(c) of the Act, 25 per cent seats in all affiliated private schools are reserved for EWS children at entry level and the expenses are to be borne by the government. However, the issue has been a bone of contention in the national capital for long and incidents of schools flouting the quota mandate have been reported in the past.
In June, for example, it was reported that a private school in Delhi had allegedly asked students admitted under the EWS quota to deposit approximately Rs 68,000.
Hearing a batch of 39 writ petitions filed against private unaided schools of Delhi for denying admission to EWS children at the elementary level, despite having confirmed admission letters from the Delhi Department of Education (DoE), the court lamented the “travesty of justice and an utter failure on the part of the state in its duties of a welfare state”.
The HC, which had reserved its judgment in the case last month and pronounced it Friday, observed that students were given confirmed admission letters from the DoE which were also communicated to the respective schools, but the schools still refused to give them admission.
Stating that it could not remain a mute spectator to the outright bulldozing of human rights by those in the noble service of imparting education, and bringing a bad name and repute to it, the court noted how the students were humiliated at the gates of the schools.
“To add insult to injury, the school gates were literally shut in the faces of the shortlisted students and their parents. One can just imagine the humiliation faced by young children and their parents,” said Justice Chandra Dhari Singh in the 85 pages judgment.
While the court did not deal with the question of facts in individual cases, it settled the principles governing EWS admissions in schools with an intention to lay down a mechanism in the case of non-compliance.
To ensure that the RTE Act is followed in its ‘letter and spirit’’, while granting admission to children belonging to economically weaker sections, the HC also issued several directives to the DoE.
Directions for DoE, schools
Issuing a set of seven directions to the DoE to ensure admission to EWS children and “alleviate the miserable state of affairs prevalent in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi in the implementation of the RTE Act at elementary education level”, the HC said no student belonging to the economically weaker sections and recommended by the DoE, can be denied admission and treated with any unwelcoming conduct, even on the pretext of suspicious EWS credentials.
In case any school was found to be violating the provision of the RTE Act and the Delhi Right to Education Rules, the DoE should not hesitate in initiating the process of derecognising the school, the court added.
If a school wanted to seek limited or one-time exemption under exceptional or unforeseen circumstances, it had to make a request to the DoE within one week of notification of the admission of a particular student, the court said. The DoE would have to give the school a week to explain why it was seeking exemption, after which the DoE would have to decide on the application in a week and grant a one-time exemption if it deemed that the reasons were “bonafide” and stood the test of “most exceptional circumstances”.
However, the HC made it clear that such exemptions cannot be granted at the cost of causing prejudice to the admission of the child and can only be passed after admitting the aggrieved child to an alternate school that is in the closest neighborhood.
The admission of a student shortlisted and allotted under the EWS category by the DoE could not be denied to ascertain the bonafides of the candidate by the school.
“Mere suspicion or doubt on the credentials of the candidate on the basis of fact-finding exercise carried out by the school, cannot be a ground to deny admission, otherwise it will render a deathknell to the spirit of the RTE Act,” the high court said, adding “the schools as such, in the matters of admission under the Act/Rules, cannot bestow upon themselves the roles of the complainant, advocate as well as adjudicator”.
The Delhi HC held that in cases where despite the due process adopted by the DoE for screening, schools, after admitting a child, suspect fraud being committed by the ward or their parents, may seek recourse to legal remedies as available.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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