Sanskriti school: Supreme Court stays Delhi HC judgment but opens up 60 percent quota in the interim

The Supreme Court today stayed the Delhi High Court judgment directing the Central government to consider converting Sanskriti school to Kendriya Vidyalaya. The Court has, however, directed that the alleged discrimination in the 60 per cent quota should not operate in the interim..A 3-judge Bench of Anil R Dave, C Nagappan and AK Goel JJ. has now posted the case for final hearing on April 6..Sanskriti school was established by “The Civil Services Society” for providing school education to children of officers of the All India and Central Services. Sixty per cent of the seats in the school are reserved for children of Group-A officers while 25 percent seats are reserved for children from the economically weaker sections as per guidelines issued by the Government of Delhi. An additional five percent of the seats are reserved for the staff of the school..The Delhi High Court in a suo moto case had quashed the reservation given to wards of Group A officers while directing the Centre to consider converting the school to a Kendriya Vidyalaya. In the process, the Court had also held that the school falls under the ambit of “State” provided in Article 12 since it had been allotted land at concessional rates, and the government had borne the construction expenses..The Sanskriti School and the Central government had appealed against the judgment of the High Court..When the case came up for hearing today, Amicus Curiae Arvind Datar submitted that the question of a Society falling under Article 12 is “very unclear”. He said that it should be settled “once and for all”..Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted that the school is not owned or run by Central government and cannot be considered “State” under Article 12..“If you apply this principle that land is owned by the State and hence the school is State, the consequences will be far reaching. There are lot of schools which function on State owned land….The school is not run by State. The Central government does not own it.”.The petitioners, however, submitted that if the Central government does not own the school it should not have interfered in the litigation..Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who is also an Amicus Curiae in the matter, submitted that an interim order can be passed so that admissions are not affected in the coming academic year, though he agreed that the larger issued needs to be settled..The Court then proceeded to stay the High Court judgment. However, the Court also directed that the school will have to open up the 60 per cent seats to wards of all Central government officers with transferable jobs who come to Delhi..The matter has now been posted for final hearing on April 6. Parties have been given 6 weeks time to file their written submissions.