Nursery School Admissions: Delhi HC stays govt’s “neighbourhood criteria”

The Delhi High Court today put an end to the controversy surrounding nursery school admissions in the capital by staying the government notifications passed in December and January..Justice Manmohan delivered the verdict, stating that the notifications were “arbitrary, discriminatory and contrary to public interest”..Four PILs had been filed in the High Court challenging the Delhi government’s notifications of December 19, 2016 and January 7, 2017..According to the notifications, private unaided schools in Delhi built on land allotted by the Delhi Development Authority were to admit children on the basis of the “neighbourhood criteria”. By this criteria, children residing within radii of 1 kilometer and 3 kilometers from the school were given preference during the time of admissions. Over 298 schools across Delhi fall under the ambit of these notifications..The petitioners were represented by Senior counsel Sunil Gupta for the Forum for Promotion of Quality Education for All, Senior counsel Amit Sibal for Action Committee Unaided Recognized Private Schools and Senior counsel Sandeep Sethi for the batch of parents. The government, on the other hand, was represented by ASG Sanjay Jain along with Senior counsel S. Gurukrishna Kumar..After hearing detailed arguments for over two weeks from the senior counsels, Justice Manmohan reserved judgment on February 9, stating that it would be delivered before the last date for submission of the admission forms in the schools, February 14..At 10.30 am today stating that the notifications issued by the Delhi government were in violation of the fundamental rights of the schools as well as the children and their parents, Justice Manmohan stayed the distance criteria. He stated that distance cannot be made the sole criteria when it comes to admissions in private schools..Justice Manmohan observed the arguments made by all the senior counsels in the judgment and stated,.“This Court is of the prima facie opinion that the concept of neighbourhood envisaged in Section 12(1)(c) of RTE Act has its genesis and basis in the problem of dropouts in children from Economically Weaker Section/Disadvantageous Group category, if they are made to travel long distance for schooling. No such concept of dropouts is applicable to general category fee paying students in private unaided schools. Thus, the concept of neighbourhood meant primarily for lowering dropout rates in Economically Weaker Section children, cannot prima facie be made applicable, that too as a sole criteria, for admissions of general category students.”.Further stating that the impugned notifications were arbitrary and discriminatory as it enured to the benefit of certain parents and children, Justice Manmohan observed,.“This Court is of the prima facie opinion that the impugned Notification dated 07th January, 2017 is arbitrary and discriminatory as it enures to the benefit of parents and children who stay in the immediate vicinity of good private unaided schools to whom the Notification applies inasmuch as such parents and children would have the benefit of both the category of schools i.e., those in their immediate neighbourhood and those schools which do not have the neighbourhood clause”.All the observations by the Delhi High Court judge were clarified to be prima facie in nature, arrived at to put in place an interim arrangement to allow the admission process to continue without any hindrance..On January 20, Justice Manmohan had stayed the government notification to the extent of minority schools stating,.“Minority schools, which have been given more autonomy on how they run and function including the admission of students, they cannot be told to follow the government’s nursery circular. The government cannot interfere with the functioning of minority schools, except on the ground of maladministration.”.From the time the hearing began, the judge was inclined to grant a prima facie stay on the notifications, criticizing the move of the government on grounds that it was not in public interest to “issue notifications at the eleventh hour”..The judge has now listed the matter for March 21 for further hearing..Read the full judgment here.