RTE Act violates rights of unaided schools: Counsel

Updated on: Friday, February 25, 2011

Providing free and compulsory education for all children aged between six and 14 under the Right to Education (RTE) Act violated the unfettered rights of unaided schools in making admissions of their choice, senior counsel Vikas Singh argued in the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Under the Act, every child in the said age group shall have the right to study in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education.

A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar is hearing arguments on petitions challenging the validity of the law.

Mr. Singh argued that the Act, directing schools to provide free and compulsory education to 25 per cent students, violated the petitioners' fundamental right to establish and administer the educational institution.

Quoting the T.M.A. Pai judgment, he argued that the rights which institutions were now enjoying would be taken away, and once they were subjected to the provisions of the RTE Act, the character of an unaided institution would be taken away.

Counsel also argued that the Act violated the right of a minority school which so far did not require any recognition and thus had unfettered right of admission. The Act would make it difficult for private unaided schools to recover fees from students.
‘Can't go into policy decision'

When Mr. Singh said that the Act did not provide for any incentives to children to go to school, the CJI pointed out that the court could not go into the domain of the policy decision of the Legislature on whether it should have provided some incentive or not.

“You may be right on ground realities, but we cannot go into policy questions,” he said.

The CJI made it clear to Mr. Singh that private educational institutions could not complain about the law asking them to admit 25 per cent of the seats for economically weaker sections as it was a policy decision aimed at investment for the country's prosperity.

He told counsel: “You will have to demonstrate that the RTE Act violated the Constitutional principles. What is wrong in 25 per cent having better education in private schools? Today you are making an investment for the country. Children are the future of the country. Can the court intervene and say it is unreasonable?”

Mr. Singh submitted that the situation would lead to a peculiar situation as the government would end up subsidising the education of the rich and middle class children in government schools.

Arguments will continue on March 3.

RTE Act violates rights of unaided schools: Counsel

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