Nursery admission: HC seeks Delhi govt stand on reservation for disabled kids

The Delhi High Court today sought the city government's stand on the issue of providing three per cent reservation for disabled kids within the 75 per cent general category in nursery admissions.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and R V Easwar asked the Delhi government to file an affidavit indicating its stand by the next date of hearing on March 19.
The court passed the order while hearing a plea against the Lt Governor's nursery admission guidelines to the extent it clubs disabled children with kids from economically weaker groups (EWS).
Meanwhile, the court also issued notice to the Centre and the Delhi government and sought their responses on a plea by petitioner, Pramod Arora, seeking framing of guidelines on providing seats to kids with special needs.

This plea was included in the main petition by way of an amended application filed by Arora, father of a child with special needs.
During the proceedings, Delhi government submitted before the court that it will provide on the next date of hearing information regarding total number of available seats to be filled in the entry level in all recognised schools here and with the necessary break-up in terms of each category.

The government also said that it will provide details with respect to the nature of special facilities extended by different institutions.
It further said it will suggest the best possible methods for maximising the chances of children with different kinds of disabilities and will also look into the possibility of allowing some institutions to admit disabled kids within the 75 per cent quota earmarked as general category candidates.

On February 26, the high court had asked Delhi government to calculate the number of seats available for the categories of disabled kids in nursery admissions after implementing the statutory three per cent quota in the total intake by private unaided schools here.
The court had also asked Delhi government to find out which schools can cater to which type of disability in order to facilitate a broad scheme under which seats can be earmarked based upon the facilities in an institute.