In a setback to the parents of toddlers set to join formal education, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to stay a Single Bench’s recent verdict setting aside the Lieutenant-Governor’s guidelines for admissions to nursery classes in private unaided schools here. Two appeals challenging the verdict have contended that the schools could not claim autonomy in the matter of admissions.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw dismissed the application for interim stay on the November 28 judgment filed by the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education. The court said it would hear the main appeal on merits on January 15.
The appellants in the case are the DoE and a non-government organisation, Social Jurist. The Bench had on Tuesday observed that since the schools and even the Education Department were about to issue notices for nursery admissions, it would have to analyse consequences of a stay.
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The court said the Single Judge Bench had dealt with the issue in detail and prima facie its findings did not seem to be erroneous.
Lawyer P.P. Malhotra, appearing for the DoE, contended that that there could not be any discrimination or question of autonomy in the matter of admission of children of three years of age to the nursery classes. The verdict had quashed the guidelines, which had laid down the points system for nursery admissions, and said the private unaided schools had the fundamental right to “maximum autonomy” in the day-to-day administration, including the right to admit students. According to the two appeals, the judgment did not appreciate the correct legal position and laid undue emphasis on the rights of schools, while ignoring the right to education laid down in the Article 21-A of the Constitution.