The Delhi High Court has quashed an April 2016 circular by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) banning sale of stationary, uniforms and books at shops inside schools affiliated under it saying they are an essential requirement of the students.
‘Commercialisation’
“Availability of uniform, non-NCERT reference books or even food items for sale only to the students of the school does not fall in the category of and cannot at all be considered as ‘commercialisation’,” the HC remarked.
It said if the sale of books and uniform in the school shops were treated as “commercialisation”, there is no reason as to why even the sale of food items in canteen facilities would also not be treated as commercialisation, the High Court remarked.
‘Affecting parents’
The High Court further stated that the CBSE have not at considered the various relevant factors including the fact that it may be more in the interest of students that the option to buy books, both the NCERT and non NCERT, stationery and uniform items from the school shops.
It also remarked that the non-sale of NCERT books and uniforms was affecting the parents as they are being deprived of opportunity to buy these books.
CBSE’s decision
“The decision of the CBSE to prohibit the sale of items, merely on the premise that the availability of these items in the school shops for sale, could be misused as the students and parents could be forced to buy the same only from the school shop, appears to be wholly arbitrary and quite irrational,” the court said.
