The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to the city government on a plea challenging rejection of admission in a government school here of three children of a Pakistani national who claims to have migrated to India along with his family in May this year.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued notices to the Directorate of Education (DoE) of the Delhi government and the school run by it and posted the case for further hearing on October 17.
Gulsher, who is currently living at Bhatti Mines Chattarpur in Delhi along with his family, said in his plea that their case for grant for Indian citizenship was under consideration by the Centre.
In his petition filed through advocate Ashok Aggarwal, he claimed that he and his family migrated to India as they were “persecuted and traumatised by Pakistan authorities”.
“These Hindu families migrated from Pakistan to India have a large number of school-age-children required to be admitted in government school so as to enable them to continue their further education,” the plea said.
Mr. Gulsher said his children Sanjina Bai, Moona Kumari and Ravi Kumar were seeking admission in different classes in a government school in Chhatarpur, but they were denied admission on the ground that they were “overaged”.
“It is the duty of the government to protect the interest of children particularly, when they are vulnerable and belong to weaker sections of society,” the plea said, adding that if the three children are not brought in the mainstream school education system, they would be further marginalised and become more vulnerable.
Mr. Aggarwal cited the case of another Pakistani Hindu refugee girl in 2016, who despite having no educational documents, was granted admission in a Delhi school by relaxing the rules after her case was requested by former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The petition claimed that the case of the three children were appealed through All India Parents Association to the Delhi Chief Minister. “However, no response has been received so far from the Directorate of Education, Delhi government,” the plea said.
