Nursery admissions on hold, won’t begin on Jan 15

Nursery admissions in Delhi will not begin on January 15 as some private schools on Monday moved the Delhi high court against the new guidelines, terming them illegal and arbitrary.

Nursery admissions in Delhi will not begin on January 15 as some private schools on Monday moved the Delhi high court against the new guidelines, terming them illegal and arbitrary.

Some unaided private schools challenged a single-judge bench order that had on January 10 refused to stay the government notification setting down criteria for admissions.

The new norms were issued by lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung last month. Unaided private schools are those who do not get government grant.

The city has around 1.25 lakh nursery seats as against almost 1.50 lakh applicants. The top 50 schools get most applications even as seats remain vacant in the remaining 1,000 schools.

While it refused to stay the new guidelines, a division bench of justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice Jayant Nath indicated that certain admission guidelines needed a "re-look".

"This (petition) needs detailed hearing. We are simply deferring the hearing without any order," the bench said. The Delhi government assured the court that it would not commence the admission process on January 15 and wait for its order.

The schools contended that the L-G’s December 18 notification was "absolutely illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction" and didn’t give schools any autonomy in admissions.

Increased weightage to “neighbourhood” criteria has emerged as the biggest sore point. New norms give it 70 out of 100 points, giving children living within an 8-km radius of the school a priority in admission.

The weightage, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for private schools, argued was against the Ganguly committee recommendations that said undue weightage to neighbourhood would be highly detrimental. The case will now be heard on January 15.