Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Nursery Admissions In Delhi: Supreme Court Of India Would Be Approached

The Delhi High Court has finally given its judgment on the right to education Act and its applicability to nursery admissions. Media reports have claimed that High Court has given a green signal to the schools to continue with the admission procedure. However, this is not completely correct and is clearly a misinterpretation of the judgement of Delhi High Court.

The judgement of the Delhi High Court has reiterated more or less the same interpretation as been given by Praveen Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law and a supreme court lawyers, in his guest post titled “Right To Education: A Successful Failure Of India” regarding the right to education act of India and its constitutional interpretation.

Media reports have not reported the contents of the judgments in proper manner. According to Praveen Dalal, instead of curbing the provisions of the Right to Education Act of India, the Delhi High Court has strengthened the same and interpreted its applicability to even Pre Nursery Admissions as far as 25% students belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged group are concerned.

The Court has also declared that the collection of Capitation Fee by private unaided schools is not permissible for the 75% students seeking admission in the general and discretionary quota, opines Dalal. There are many more aspects that Schools of Delhi must consider and interpreting the Judgement of Delhi High Court as giving a complete freedom to schools while granting nursery and other school admissions would be a big mistake, opines Dalal.

The court has also opined that schools cannot engage in commercialisation of education and open ‘Teaching Shops’. The court has also said that even pre nursery admissions must be governed by the right to education act in future and the act must be amended accordingly to ensure this possibility.

The petitioners have also decided to appeal before the Supreme Court of India that may amend the decision of the Delhi High Court and make it applicable to nursery admissions as well for even 75% category.

We would bring more legal interpretation of the decision of Delhi High Court and have already invited opinions of legal experts, media professionals and general public. Please contact us at ram.ok@rediffmail.com for submitting your comments and suggestions.