HC notice to Delhi government on unrecognised play schools

The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued a notice to city government on a plea filed against unauthorized and unrecognized play schools in the capital.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice P.S Teji also issued notice to civic bodies and DDA and sought their response by Feb 11.

The court's order came on a PIL filed by an NGO Social Jurist saying that despite court's 2008 order that no unrecognized school be allowed to run in Delhi, the city state's directorate of education (DoE) has done nothing to ensure this, resulting in "continuous existence and mushrooming of hundreds of unauthorized, unsafe and unrecognized play schools and pre-primary schools in Delhi".

Advocate Ashok Agarwal and Khagesh Jha appearing for the NGO told the court that some action-taken reports were submitted in the court. But these were silent as to what action the directorate proposed to take against such schools that had not applied for recognition and were still functioning.

The plea said that the directorate last year had invited applications for recognition of schools running classes up to the elementary level but said that as pre-primary schools are not covered under the Right to Education Act, these schools can continue to function.

Allowing pre-primary and nursery schools to continue to run without obtaining recognition is "illegal", it added.

In 2008, the high court had asked the government to frame a scheme for regularising and regulating these unregistered institutions.