Court stays order on quota at St. Columba's

The Delhi High Court Wednesday stayed a Delhi government order reserving 20 percent seats in St. Columba's school for students belonging to the economically weaker sections.

Justice Manmohan passed an interim order staying the government notification, which he said "has been passed without application of mind".

St. Columba's moved the high court challenging the Dec 18 notification of Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung, saying the Supreme Court had excluded minority schools from the ambit of Right to Education Act.

The apex court held April 12, 2012 that the act would not apply to unaided minority schools and imposing a quota for children from poor families on such schools violated article 30 of the constitution.

Jung is an alumnus of St. Columba's.

On Dec 18, Jung ordered all the schools in Delhi, including minority schools, which got land from the government, to also admit 20 percent children from the weaker sections in the neighbourhood.

Delhi government counsel Zubeda Begum told the court that in 1966, land was given to the school on concessional basis so that they kept 20 percent of their seats to the economically weaker sections.

The association of unaided private schools has also moved the high court challenging the Delhi government notification. It has called the order "absolutely illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction".