Nursery admission guidelines; HC reserves verdict on PIL

"We reserve the order on the petition. The parties may give their written synopsis within two days," a bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain said after the counsel for the federation of unaided private schools wrapped up his arguments in the case.

Senior advocate N K Kaul, appearing for the federation comprising over 380 private schools as members, said, "the attempt to do away with the principle of maximum autonomy, laid down by the Supreme Court, to be given to private schools would have wide ramifications."

Referring to various case laws, he said that the private schools cannot be forced to "toe" the diktat so far as the admission process is concerned and "at best the admission criteria, laid down by them, should be reasonable."

Another senior lawyer, appearing for the parents of an admission seeking toddler, opposed the PIL saying "the fundamental right to education cannot be enforced against private schools as it is enforceable against the state and its instrumentalities. It is the duty of the state to provide education."

Reserving the verdict, the court said, "we are testing the constitutional validity of the notifications that gave you (schools) the power to formulate criteria. We are also on the applicability of the Right to Education Act in this case."

Earlier, the court had made it clear that its decision on the PIL would also affect nursery admissions for the 2013-14 academic session.

The court is hearing the PIL, filed by NGO Social Jurist, against two notifications, issued by the Human Resources Development Ministry and the Directorate of Education of Delhi government. The notifications gave schools the power to formulate their own admission criteria. (More)