Nursery Admission Guidelines: Delhi High Court Order Today
by Schools Pedia SchoolsPedia - Nursery Admission PortalNew Delhi: The Delhi High Court will on Wednesday pass an order on pleas challenging a single-judge bench decision to quash the Lt Governor's guidelines on nursery admissions in the capital's unaided private schools. A division bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice RS Endlaw had on Tuesday reserved the order for Wednesday on applications that sought interim suspension of the single-judge bench order.
The Delhi government and NGO Social Jurist have filed
appeals against the judge's order which quashed the guidelines issued last year
by Lt Governor Najeeb Jung.
The order said that the neighbourhood, sibling and alumni
criteria set as per the notification will go and schools can now set their own
criteria according to the 2007 Ganguly Committee guidelines.
On November 28, Justice Manmohan quashed the points
system, saying the guidelines were in violation of the fundamental rights of
the school management to have maximum autonomy in day-to-day administration,
including the right to admit students.
The Lt Governor issued the guidelines on December
18, 2013, after which a number of petitions were filed against them.
The guidelines outlined several criteria, including the
neighbourhood factor, which sought that schools give preference to children
living within eight km of it.
This criterion was given the maximum weightage of 70
points out of 100 in the open category seats. Other criteria were siblings
studying in the same school (20 points), applications of girls (five points),
and wards of school alumni (five points).
Seeking that the single judge bench's order be quashed,
the Delhi government and NGO Social Jurist said there cannot be any
discrimination, question of autonomy in the matter of admitting children around
three years of age in nursery.
During the hearing, senior advocate PP Malhotra,
appearing for government, had said that the order was totally against the law.
"The judge erred to hold that if parents are given
freedom to choose schools, the good schools would attract more students and
would expand and not-so-good schools would lose students," he had added.
Advocate Ashok Agarwal, appearing for NGO, told the court
that the guidelines were child-centric and deserved to be upheld by law.
"There was no question of schools' autonomy in the matter of admission of
tiny tots," he added.
Advocate appearing for private unaided schools, however,
opposed the contentions of government and NGO saying the single judge in its
order has hold that there is no proof to show that schools were indulging in
any malpractice or were misusing their right to admit students.
The single judge bench quashing the lieutenant governor's
guidelines had said the power to decide the school for a child should lie with
the parents and not with the government.
The court had said it nowhere stipulates that "children would have to take admission only in a neighbourhood school or that children cannot take admissions in schools situated beyond their neighbourhood".
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