60 percent quota for bureaucrats' kids in Delhi school defended

Delhi's lt. governor, defending the decision allowing the city's Sanskriti school to reserve 60 percent seats for children of bureaucrats, has told the Delhi High Court that it was required as such parents find it extremely difficult to have their children admitted in other public schools.

In a response filed before Justice Manmohan, Lt.Gov Najeeb Jung said that the reservation was structured to cater to the specific needs of children of such serving employees as in case of transfer.

The Lt.Gov. in Dec 18 nursery admission guidelines had allowed schools set up for specific government services like armed force, paramilitary forces, central services, and all India services to reserve seats for their wards.

His response came on a notice issued by Justice Manmohan over a plea challenging the Dec 18 order, seeking his response as to why an exception to the nursery admission rules for the school has been allowed.

Sanskriti school, situated at Chanakyapuri here, has purportedly reserved 60 percent seats for the wards of persons belonging to government services.

The plea was filed by a three-year-old girl's lawyer father, Dheeraj Kumar Singh, contending that the lt. governor's Recognized Schools (Admission Procedure for Pre-primary Class) Order 2013 "permits specific government services and more particularly All India Services an unfettered and unrestricted right to reserve seats for their wards".

The LG's order has been necessitated to provide legal sanctity to admission procedure adopted by schools like Sanskriti, said the plea.