Minority schools not getting govt grant don't have to reserve

The Bombay High Court has ruled that unaided minority schools which do not get direct monetary grants from Maharashtra government do not have to reserve 25 per cent seats mandatory under the Right to Education Act.
A division bench of Justices A S Oka and Revati Dere was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by minority schools from Pune challenging a Zilla Parishad order staying admissions for the year 2013-14.
The ZP said the schools had not adhered to provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which mandates that schools keep 25 per cent seats for students from poorer sections of society.

The schools while challenging the ZP order relied on a 2012 Supreme Court judgement which said that the RTE Act was not applicable to unaided minority institutions.
Government pleader Sandeep Shinde and assistant government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani opposed the petition and said the schools received benefits from the government including land on lease at concessional rates as well as concessions in water, property and other taxes. All this amounted to aid from the government and hence the provisions of RTE applies to them.
The court, however, did not accept this contention and said that such concessions does not put these schools in the category of aided schools.

"Unaided private minority schools, which do not get direct monetary or salary grant aid from the government, do not come under the ambit of RTE Act which requires them to reserve 25 per cent seats for students from the economically weak families," the court noted yesterday.