HC seeks Delhi govt response on plea for school admission of 44,000 EWS category children

Listing the case for further hearing on April 26, the court said, “File a concise and crisp reply (on) what is your understanding of Right to Education Act, the position of number of seats in the previous year, applications made and number of admissions.”

Delhi government has received directions from the state High Court to provide a "concise and crisp" response on a petition to ensure admission of over 44,000 children, belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, in various private schools here. A public notice has been issued by a bench headed by Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Talwant Singh on the public interest litigation by NGO, 'Justice For All'.

Delhi government counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi is supposed to file the reply to the notice. Listing the case for further hearing on April 26, the court said, “File a concise and crisp reply (on) what is your understanding of Right to Education Act, the position of number of seats in the previous year, applications made and number of admissions.”

Advocates Khagesh B Jha and Shikha Sharma Bagga filed the plea alleging that the government is not performing their duty and there was a blatant violation of the fundamental rights of thousands of children who are waiting for admission since April 2021.

The petition said only 21,000 children have been admitted however, there are more than 53,000 seats from the current year and addition 24,000 seats have to be carried forward from the last academic session, that is, a total of 77,000 seats for children belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and disadvantaged group.

The petition also stated that the process of admission was delayed by the Director of Education delayed and they are now refusing the admission on the grounds of delay in admission which is the duty of the appropriate government.

The petition has been filed by the NGO seeing court’s direction to the Director of Education to take adequate action against the private schools which have failed to admit the students on the allotted seats.

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