E-Paper
Pvt unaided schools can’t deny admission under RTE Act: Allahabad HC
The court directed Lucknow Public School to forthwith complete the formalities for admission of the petitioner (a four-year-old girl student) in the pre-primary class
In an important judgment, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has ruled that the private unaided schools cannot deny admission under the Right to Education (RTE) Act on trivial issues that do not hamper the root of the eligibility criteria innately.
With this ruling, the court directed the respondent Lucknow Public School to forthwith complete the formalities for admission of the petitioner (a four-year-old girl student) in the pre-primary class and permit her to attend classes.
The court also ordered that “Considering the fact that the petitioner comes from a very humble background and the parents have been forced to litigate by filing the present writ petition, the writ petition is allowed with the cost of ₹3000 to be given to the petitioner within next three weeks by respondent school.”
The judgment and order was passed by justice Alok Mathur recently on a petition filed by the four-year-old girl student of Lucknow through her natural guardian Shahjahan.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that on being selected and allotted a school, the petitioner approached the school to complete all admission-related formalities but she was neither given the admission nor permitted to attend classes.
The petitioner then made several representations but she did not get any respite. Hence, she filed the petition seeking a direction to the state authorities to ensure her admission under the RTE Act, 2009 for 2024-25 session in the said school, her counsel contended.
He also submitted that as per the provisions contained in the RTE Act, 2009, the state government had issued several government orders from time to time with regard to the free and compulsory education to the children of poor family.
On the other hand, the plea was opposed by the counsel for respondent school. After hearing the matter, the court observed: “With the rise of globalised world order, inequities in society have heightened too, aggravating the challenges for Welfare state like India. Education is the most important lever for social, economic and political transformation, the most important tool for social engineering and a key instrument for building an equitable and just society.”
“In order to achieve Universalisation of Elementary Education, the Government of India has initiated a number of programmes and projects, the common objectives of which are to enhance access through the expansion of quality school education; to promote equity through the inclusion of disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, and to improve the quality of education,” the court said.
“It is the responsibility of the Private Unaided Schools to participate in nation building exercise by providing equal opportunity of education to disadvantaged children through affirmative action as prescribed in RTE Act, 2009. It is a general rule that welfare and beneficial legislation requires substantial compliance and must be interpreted in favour of the disadvantaged. The school cannot deny admission on trivial issues that do not hamper the root of the eligibility criteria innately,” the court said.
