Bombay HC junks govt notification giving conditional exemption to pvt schools

The Bombay High Court on Friday quashed the Maharashtra governments notification that exempted private schools within a onekilometre radius of government or aided schools from Right to Education RTE Act quota admissionsA division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar said the notification dated February 9 was ultra vires to Article 21 of the Constitution of India and provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 also known as the RTEThe notification is held to be null and void the court saidThe court in its judgment said the mandate of the law casts a duty not only on the government but also on private unaided schools to provide education to children in the age group of six to 14 years from the disadvantaged section of societyThe mandate of the state to provide free and compulsory education under Article 21A is almost absolute it heldProvisions of the RTE Act mandate that private unaided schools shall also be part of such mandatory duty the court saidThe bench noted that if the purpose of the RTE Act is not achieved fully it would result in denial of the fundamental right enshrined under Article 21A of the Constitution of IndiaThe RTE Act does not provide for any condition and it is mandatory for all private unaided schools in the neighbourhood to follow its provisions it saidThe bench refused to accept the governments contention that it has established a sufficient number of schools and has been spending a lot of public money to meet the expenditure on schoolsIt said this does not impede in any manner the right of a child to free and compulsory educationThe court however noted that before it had stayed the implementation of the notification in May the admissions were already done for students in a few private unaided schoolsThese admissions shall not be disturbed but the schools must ensure the 25 per cent quota of seats under the RTE were filled it saidIn May the high court granted a stay on the notificationA bunch of petitions challenged the notification claiming it contravened provisions of the RTE ActThe notification exempted private unaided schools within a onekilometre radius of a governmentrun or aided school from reserving 25 per cent of seats for economically weaker and disadvantaged childrenBefore the notification all unaided and private schools had to reserve 25 per cent of seats for such childrenThe pleas said the notification violated the constitutional right to educationAccording to the petitioners the notification was unconstitutional and contrary to the RTE Act which entitles children from the weaker and disadvantaged sections to free educationAdditional government pleader Jyoti Chavan argued that the notification applied only to unaided private schools in areas that have government or aided schoolsUnder the RTE Act 25 per cent seats at the entry point Class 1 or preprimary section in private unaided schools should be reserved for children from economically weaker and disadvantaged sectionsThese students receive education free of cost while the government reimburses their tuition fees to schoolsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever