The Hindu : New Delhi News : Govt. nod not required for nursery admission criteria: Supreme Court

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Saturday, Dec 15, 2007
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Govt. nod not required for nursery admission criteria: Supreme Court

J. Venkatesan

Regarding age, the bench refused to stay High Court order

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the regulation requiring prior approval from the Directorate of Education (DoE), NCT Delhi, on the criteria for admission to nursery classes to be adopted by private schools from the academic year 2008-2009.

A three-Judge of the Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal made it clear that it would be sufficient if the admission criteria adopted by the schools were sent to the Director of Education. It also stayed the direction issued by the Delhi High Court that the school management could interact with parents and guardians “only for verification of documents.”

On time schedule for admissions, the Bench said: “Such of the schools which have objection to the schedule may give their own schedule in advance to the Director of Education within one week and also publish the schedule containing the date of distribution of registration forms, date fixed for acceptance of filled up form, dates of admission etc in the Notice Board of the schools or on its website. Those schools which prefer to follow clause (9) of the Admission Order, may regulate the admission in terms of that clause. Schools which do not submit their own schedules to the Director within one week, shall be governed by clause 9.” On the issue of age criterion, the Bench refused to stay the High Court order which said that in all schools the pre-primary education should uniformly be of one year duration and the same should be the class immediately prior to Class 1, which would be uniformly known as pre-primary.

The Forum for Promotion of Quality Education for All and Action Committee of Unaided Private Schools had challenged the High Court order which said that the schools should follow the guidelines incorporating some of the recommendations of the Ganguly report.

Earlier senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for private schools, found fault with the High Court contending that it would erode the autonomy of the schools. At this Justice Raveendran asked “What do you (schools) want to verify. Black or white. Tall or short. Rich or poor. Apparently it is for collection of donation, officially or unofficially, in the name of transparency. While the High Court says interaction for verifying the documents, you want to know how much they can pay. Whether you want to run a school or you want your type of children.” The Bench, however, passed an interim order in favour of petitioners.

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