See if nurseries can have more seats for inter-state category, says SC

The Supreme Court Monday asked the Delhi government's education department to explore the possibility if five to six seats each could be increased in the nurseries of private schools to accommodate entrants under the inter-state category.

A bench of Justice H.L.Dattu, Justice M.Y.Eqbal and Justice S.A.Bobde asked the education department to get back after speaking to private schools as it directed the listing of the matter Tuesday for further hearing.

Senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, appearing for the education department, told the court that the admissions in nursery sections have to take place in private schools only and urged it to pass an order directing creation of additional five to six seats in each school to accommodate toddlers under the inter-state category.

Asking the department to explore the possibility of creating more seats in the schools with nursery sections, the court took strong exception for changing of the entire criteria spelt out in the first notification issued in December 2013.

"You can't change the rules of the game midway. We had upheld the first notification of December 2013 to protect your policy and the interest of children. Now can you do it in between," the court asked admonishing the department.

The Supreme Court had April 11 put on hold the April 3 Delhi High Court nod to the schools to go ahead with the admission process except inter-state transfer admission cases.

The high court, while permitting the admission under all the categories, had said the nursery admissions under inter-State category would wait as it would hear their matter.

The entire admission process under the inter-state category came undera cloud as it was suspected that the fake admissions were being pushed through it.

This was the outcome of a survey which pointed to fake attempts under the inter-state category while kids under the neighbourhood category were losing to the inter-state category as the latter had more points.

However, now it has surfaced that 7,238 applications under inter-state category were genuine and 2,209 were not.