Delhi scraps transfer points in nursery admission

Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung Wednesday informed the Delhi High Court that the city government has decided to scrap the five additional points to be given to children of parents who come under the inter-state transfer category in nursery admissions.

Advocate Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Jung, informed Justice Manmohan that a survey was carried out in 58 leading private schools in the city that found massive misuse of the transfer points.

A notification in this regard will come Thursday, the advocate said.

Justice Manmohan directed the department of education "to take a decision with regard to the inter-state transfer category and issue a fresh schedule for draw of lots" by Thursday.

Ramachandran told the court that more than 1,500 applications were received under the inter-state transfer category, out of which more that 800 applications were "not genuine".

"Analysis of data of 58 leading schools shows that approximately 46.80 percent of open seats have claimed under the inter-state transfer category and 2.4 percent applications are from the NCR zone," Ramachandran said.

"On scrutiny, out of 1,520 applications in which inter-state transfer had been claimed, 844 applications were found out to be not genuine," he added.

In December 2013, Jung set down new nursery admission norms in which five points were to be allotted in inter-state transfer cases.

The new admission norms gives 70 points to neighbourhood criteria, 20 points for a sibling studying in the same school, five points for parent alumni of the school and five points for inter-state transfer cases.

In another case related to nursery admission, the high court also directed the schools to "keep vacant the three percent quota earmarked for children with disabilities".

The order came on a plea challenging the inclusion of the quota under the 25 percent reservation for economically weaker section (EWS) category.

A division bench of Justice Ravinder Bhat and Justice R.V. Easwar further ordered the authorities to carry out an exercise to ascertain which schools were equipped to cater to the concerned disability, including sight disability, hearing impairment, locomotive disability, blindness and other categories.

It also ordered the central government to inform it how it used the funds available for disabled people.

The court posted the matter for further hearing March 12.