HC gives 4 weeks' time to UP govt to reply on plea seeking quashing of RTE sections

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has granted four weeks' time to the Uttar Pradesh government to file its reply in response to a petition seeking quashing of section 12(1)(c) of Right to Education Act, holding it unconstitutional.

The court, however, made it clear that if the state does not file a reply within next four weeks and seeks further time, then the reply would be accepted at a cost of Rs 25,000 which would be recovered from the defaulting officer.

A bench of Justice M N Bhandari and Justice Alok Mathur on Thursday passed the order on the petition moved by the Association of Private Schools.

The petitioner challenged the constitutionality of section 12(1)(c) of RTE Act 2009 pleading that the provision is ultra-vires to the Constitution of India.

Section 12(1)(c) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 aims to improve social inclusion and enable school choice by reserving a minimum of 25 per cent of all entry-level seats in private, unaided, non-minority and special category schools for children from EWS and Disadvantaged Groups (DG).

Besides it, the petitioner also complained that fees was not being reimbursed to the private schools in arbitrary manner.

The court had on May 13, 2019 granted opposite parties four weeks to file counter affidavit in the matter.

However, the state counsel sought further time to file counter affidavit, which lead the court to issue the above caution.