Unrecognised play schools: HC seeks Delhi govt's reply on PIL

The Delhi High Court today sought response of the city government on a PIL filed against unauthorised and unrecognised play schools in the capital.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice P S Teji also issued notice to civic bodies and DDA while asking them to file their reply before February 11, 2015.
The court's notice came on a plea filed by an NGO Social Jurist, which alleged that despite the court's 2008 decision that no unrecognised school be allowed to run in Delhi, the city government's Directorate of Education (DoE) had done nothing to ensure this, resulting in "continuous existence and mushrooming of hundreds of unauthorised, unsafe and unrecognised play schools and pre-primary schools in Delhi".

The NGO's counsel, Ashok Agarwal and Khagesh Jha, informed the court that some action-taken reports were submitted in the court.
"But these were silent as to what action the directorate proposed to take against such schools that had not applied for recognition and were still functioning," the counsel argued.
The plea said, "The DoE in 2013 had invited applications for recognition of schools running classes up to the elementary level but said that as pre-primary schools are not covered under the Right to Education Act, these schools can continue to function."
Allowing pre-primary and nursery schools to continue to run without obtaining recognition is "illegal", the plea said.

In 2008, the High Court had asked the government to frame a scheme for regularising and regulating these unregistered institutions.