The Delhi High Court has refused to set aside the interim stay on the AAP government’s January 7 notification, which directed 298 private unaided schools built on DDA land to admit 75% students in nursery from the neighbourhood.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice G. Rohini, which dismissed the Delhi government’s appeal against the interim stay granted by Justice Manmohan, said, “Since the issue relates to admission of children to entry-level classes, if the notification is allowed to be acted upon, it would lead to an irreversible situation. In case the notification is ultimately quashed, the consequences would be very complex and serious,” the Bench said.
It also directed the single judge to decide expeditiously petitions filed by the schools, which had challenged the notification saying it discriminated between them and other schools not on government land, besides affecting the heterogeneity of their students. The AAP government had appealed against Justice Manmohan’s February 14 order, as per which he granted interim stay in favour of the schools. The notification was held to be in violation of the child and parents’ right to choose the school, besides being considered an interference into the administration of educational institutions.
Notification ‘arbitrary’
Terming the January 7 notification as “arbitrary and discriminatory”, Justice Manmohan had blamed the chaos around nursery admissions on the lack of good public schools in the Capital. The AAP government, meanwhile, contended that the neighbourhood criterion would ensure schools did not adopt an arbitrary admission process.
