HC reserves interim order on scrapping of admission criteria

Delhi High Court today said it will pass an interim order confined only on 10 or 11 criteria for entry-level admissions in private schools, out of the 62 scrapped by the AAP government.
Justice Manmohan had suggested to the schools yesterday whether they were willing to confine their challenge to only a few criteria, as the application process will close on February 5.
The schools agreed with the court's suggestion and confined their challenge to only 10 to 11 criteria, including issues like proven track record of parents during admission of their children, music, sports and transport facility.
The school said these were the minimum requirements which the government cannot interfere with.

The court was hearing pleas filed by Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools and Forum for Promotion of Quality Education For All, seeking quashing of the AAP government's January 6 decision to scrap management and all other quotas except for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in Delhi's private unaided schools for nursery admissions.
They claimed that the order was "without jurisdiction and contrary to and violative of various judgments passed by the Supreme Court as well as by various benches of the High Court, relating to the autonomy of private unaided schools to regulate their admissions".

On the last date of hearing, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had defended his government's decision alleging that private unaided schools in the national capital had become a "hub of corruption" as they were running "admission rackets" under the garb of management quota.

He had also alleged that the government received 20-30 complaints every day from parents regarding "malpractices and demand of donation" for granting admission to children.
The court had then asked Sisodia to take action if the government had evidence of malpractice.
The Delhi government by its January 6 order had scrapped 62 "arbitrary and discriminatory" criteria listed by schools on their websites for admissions, but retained the 25 per cent quota for EWS.