The Delhi High Court on Thursday pulled up the AAP government for the chaos surrounding nursery admissions in the Capital due to its practice of bringing notifications and changes at the eleventh hour.
The Delhi government was at the receiving end after a petition filed by the Action Commitee of Unaided Recognised Schools came up for hearing before Justice Manmohan.
Neigbourhood criterion
The Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools, comprising over 450 private unaided recognised schools of Delhi have challenged the December 19, 2016 and January 7 notification of the government making it mandatory for private schools on public land to admit students using the neighbourhood criterion.
“Why do you always bring a new notification in January just before the admissions are to begin... This makes the citizen jittery, who does not know where to go,” justice Manmohan said, expressing his disquiet.
Justice Manmohan criticised the government for “creating chaos” by bringing in new guidelines at the last minute and remarked how he had earlier, on two ocassions, set aside similar notifications once in 2014 and the other in 2016 when the Delhi government had scrapped the management quota.
The Action Committee's counsel Kamal Gupta said the same Bench has earlier also pulled up the government for creating chaos by bringing in some new guidelines at the last moment.
Jurisdiction of Bench
It is to be noted that in November, 2014, Justice Manmohan had allowed private schools to set their own guidelines for nursery admission while setting aside a notification issued by the Lieutenant Governor that had created a 100-point system for nursery admission of general category students and had done away with the management quota.
In 2016, Justice Manmohan stayed a similar notification. On Thursday, the government challenged the jurisdiction of the particular Bench to hear the matter saying the same was concerning education and should therefore be listed before the appropriate Bench.
At this, Justice Manmohan directed the same be placed before the appropriate Bench.
More pleas to be heard
The matter then came up before Justice V. Kameshwar Rao who will now hear the matter on Friday.
A similar plea filed by Forum for Promotion of Quality Education For All and some educational societies comprising private schools of Delhi anf NCR will also be heard on Friday by the same Bench.
Both the petitions contend that the new rule that schools shall undertake to admit 75 per cent of the students of the neighborhood or from the locality is illegal and arbitrary.
