HC stays minority status of Chandigarh’s St Kabir School

The plea challenging the minority status was submitted by the Chandigarh administration arguing that the school had failed to obtain a no-objection certificate

A division bench of Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed the minority status of St Kabir School, Sector 26.

The school was granted minority status in March 2014. (Representational photo)

The order has been passed by the bench of justice Ajay Tewari and justice Rajesh Bhardwaj, confirmed senior standing counsel, UT, Pankaj Jain.

It was in March 2020 that a high court bench had dismissed a February 2018 plea filed by the Chandigarh administration challenging the minority status given to the school. In a fresh plea, the administration appealed against the decision.

The school was granted minority status in March 2014. Chandigarh has 22 minority schools, and out of the 13 schools that opted for minority status after 2012, only two got a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the UT administration.

There has been a spurt in the cases of schools seeking minority status after the apex court directed in 2012 that minority schools were not bound to reserve 25% of the seats under EWS category for entry-level classes under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The city has a total of 82 private schools.

The UT has argued that as per the 2011 Census, Sikhs constitute the second largest majority after Hindus in Chandigarh. With minority status, the school goes out of the purview of the RTE Act for reservation to EWS and the administration is left with no control over fee regulation and no parent can approach it in case of any complaint, the UT had told court.

“(St Kabir) School has complete monopoly and can function without any fear of state supervision or accountability,” the UT argued. It added that the school has not got an NOC from the administration, and the commission granted it minority status even after the UT contested the same.

In another case of minority status in August 2018, a high court single judge bench had ruled against minority status obtained by Vivek High School, Sector 38, on a plea by the UT administration. Vivek High’s appeal against that judgment is pending before a division bench.