105 private schools in Delhi given notices over EWS admissions

The Delhi govt informed a high court bench that it initiated action in March against those private schools that have failed to admit the mandated 25% EWS students.

The Delhi government on Tuesday informed the Delhi high court that it has issued show cause notices for derecognising 105 private schools in the national capital for their alleged failure to admit students from economically weaker sections ( EWS) in the nursery class for the academic year 2021-22.

Delhi's private schools get notices over EWS admissions.(File Photo / PTI)

A bench of justices Najmi Waziri and Swarn Kanta Sharma was informed by advocate Santosh Tripathi, standing counsel for the Delhi government, that they have initiated action in March this year against those private schools that have failed to admit the mandated 25% students under the EWS category.

The submission was made while hearing a petition by a student belonging to the ESW category, through advocate Khagesh Jha, who challenged a private school’s decision to reserve 3% seats, from the 25% seats allotted to the EWS category.

On February 18, while giving interim relief in the plea, the court had asked the government to issue fresh advertisements seeking applications for selection of children against nursery seats reserved for EWS, disadvantaged groups and persons with disability.

The court said the methodology followed for admissions until now will apply to this process as well and the exercise should be completed within 15 days.

On the last date (March 29), the court had asked the Delhi government to file an affidavit stating the existing vacancies under EWS category.

This came after the government counsel had said they had received 44,000 applications against 50,000 EWS category seats in private schools.

On Tuesday, advocate Khagesh Jha for the petitioner, told the court that despite seats being available in the reserved categories, admission was not given to the petitioner student.

The government counsel told the court that the government is committed to securing education for everyone under the Right to Education (RTE) Act and the schools will have to admit the students from EWS category with all transparency.

When the court sought to know as to what action has been taken against such schools, advocate Tripathi said the process has been initiated to derecognise such schools and it would take some time as replies have been sought from errant schools.

The bench asked the government to complete the process and file a status report. The matter will be heard next on May 19.

This year, the online registration process for admission to the city’s private schools in entry-level classes — nursery, kindergarten, and Class 1 — under the reserved categories of economically weaker section (EWS), disadvantaged groups (DG), and children with disabilities for the academic session 2022-23 began on March 30.