On Wednesday, two groups of private schools moved to the high court because they wanted to challenge the latest nursery admission criteria in the city. Today, Justice Manmohan is likely to take up the case, when the pleas filed by Action Committee of Private Unaided Schools and Forum for Promotion of Quality Education comes up for hearing.
Before a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar, the pleas were mentioned and they allowed the matter to be listed for hearing on Thursday i.e. today.
According to the TOI reports, they have also challenged a condition in the allotment letter issued by Delhi Development Authority (DDA), under which they have been ordered to implement neighbourhood scheme while granting admissions.
In the pleas, the Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools contended that the restriction in DDA allotment letters is “illegal, arbitrary, unenforceable and unconstitutional“, and sought its quashing.
The Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools also challenged the December 19 circular of the directorate of education (DoE), under which the government issued admission guidelines for entry level classes for open seats in private unaided schools on private land for the 2017-2018 session.
The committee says that the guidelines “illegally and arbitrarily distinguished between schools situated on private land and those running on land allotted by DDA.”
The association has also charged the latest order dated January 7 of LG Anil Baijal approving the nursery admission guidelines for 298 private schools on DDA land.
The guidelines state the schools on DDA land “shall not refuse admission to the residents of the locality. “Defining what neighbourhood would mean, it states that students who are residing within 1 km of the school will be preferred and if seats are not filled, preference will be given to students residing within 1-3 km of the school. “Students residing beyond 6 km shall be admitted only in case vacancies remain unfilled even after considering all the students within 6 km area,” as per the guidelines.
The schools have raised objections to the latest guidelines and they said that enforcing the clause would result in reducing world class educational institutions into neighbourhood schools and would be violative of their fundamental rights. They have claimed that as per the Delhi School Education Act and the Rules they have the autonomy to regulate their admissions.
In over 1400 private schools, the nursery admission process has begun in the national capital on January 2 and is likely to end on January 23.