Verdict on nursery admission guidelines Monday

The Delhi High Court will Monday give its verdict on a plea filed by the city's private schools challenging the government's notification on the criteria for nursery admissions.

A division bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw Wednesday reserved the order after hearing both the parties. The bench said it will deliver its order Jan 20.

The nursery admissions process is now on hold after the government told the bench it "would wait for the court's decision on the issue before commencing the admission process".

The admission process for nursery classes in the city's private schools, which was to start Jan 15, was deferred by two days after unaided private schools appealed against the single-judge order declining to suspend the government notification on the criteria for nursery admissions in the capital.

The schools said the new guidelines were "arbitrary".

A single judge Jan 10 denied any relief to private schools on a plea that challenged the Dec 18 notification of Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung, claiming it was "absolutely illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction".

According to the new guidelines, admissions would continue on the 100-point basis but children living within 8 km radius would be included in the criteria of "neighbourhood", carrying 70 points.

Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing the schools, opposed this, saying it was against the Ganguly Committee recommendation.

"The Ganguly Committee had said you cannot restrict people to one area. Giving 70 points out of 100 to neighbourhood is arbitrary," said the advocate, seeking that the notification be quashed.

However, senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, appearing for the government, told the bench that as per the Ganguly Committee report, schools cannot have screening process for admitting three to six-year-old kids.