HC seeks Centre's reply on KVS quota guidelines

Updated on: Friday, February 10, 2012

The Delhi High Court sought response from the Centre and the city government on a plea against the provision of "quota within quota" in the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) guidelines for admission of economically weaker section (EWS) students.

The court issued notices to HRD Ministry and Delhi government's Directorate of Education on a plea of Social Jurists, an NGO, challenging the KVS admission guidelines 2012-2013 which reserved 22.5 per cent seats for SC/ST category students within the 25 per cent reserved quota for children belonging to EWS category in class One.

"Issuing notice to Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), Directorate of Education (DoE) of Delhi government," a bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said, directing them to file their replies by February 22.

The petition, filed through advocate Ashok Agarwal, stated that quota within quota was not permissible under the Right To Education (RTE) Act.

"Out of 10 seats reserved in 25 per cent quota under RTE Act, KVS Guidelines earmarked nine seats for SC/ST students leaving only one seat for all other categories like OBC, disabled children, EWS etc, which defeats the very object of the Act," the advocate said terming the guidelines as "arbitrary and discriminatory".

Seeking court's direction to the government to re-issue the guidelines as per the law, the counsel said, "Amongst the categories mentioned in the RTE Act for the purpose of reservation, no category is entitled to preference over the other as they all form one homogeneous class and is entitled to equal treatment."

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