Delhi govt's reply sought on alleged RTE Act breach by schools

Updated on: Monday, December 05, 2011

The Delhi High Court has sought the city government's reply to a plea accusing it of failure in acting against unaided private schools for not admitting poor children against reserved seats for them and violating the Right to Education Act.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw issued notice to the Delhi government and its Directorate of Education and sought their replies by December 21 on a PIL by NGO Social Jurists.

The bench also sought a report from the government about the steps taken by it to monitor the implementation of the RTE Act provisions relating to admission of children belonging to economically weaker section against 25 per cent seats reserved for them.

Appearing for the NGO, counsel Ashok Aggarwal and Khagesh Jha submitted that many schools have deliberately reduced the number of seats at the entry level classes. They claimed the schools have devised this ploy to admit negligible numbers of poor children under the category, defeating the objective of the RTE Act, while the government has failed to take any action against the erring schools.

The lawyer also contended that the government has not established a district admission monitoring committee in each district as required under Clause 7 of the economically weaker section admission order issued by it in January.

The bench has now fixed December 21 as the next date of hearing the matter.

Delhi govt's reply sought on alleged RTE Act breach by schools

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