Student moves HC after govt. school denies admission

Petition alleges 18-year-old had applied for enrolment but was not accepted due to age restrictions

A student has approached the Delhi High Court alleging that a government school had denied admission to him on grounds of his age being higher than the requirement.

Shekh Habibul, who is 18-and-a-half-year-old, said he was forced to leave his private school due to financial constraints during the pandemic. He was studying in K.D. Model School at Bawana Road in Barwala since Class II. He passed his Class X CBSE examinations earlier this year.

Habibul said his family suffered a major financial loss after the COVID-19 outbreak and could not pay his school fee.

The petition, filed through advocate Ashok Agarwal, stated that Habibul has been trying to get admission in Government Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Prahalad Pur in Delhi, under non-plan admission since the first week of September.

Mr. Aggarwal said the student had visited school several times and also applied for admission in Class XI through online mode under non-plan admission for academic session 2020-21, which was not accepted on the website.

Mr. Aggarwal stated that the government has issued a circular laying down age criteria for non-plan admissions in government schools, seeking direct admission, in all classes upto to Class XII for the academic session 2020-21.

The circular provides that only those students will be granted direct admission in Class XI who are over 15 years of age but are less than 17 years.

The circular further provides that the age criteria laid down is not applicable to plan admissions i.e. the existing students of government schools.

The plea contended that there is no justification on part of the government school to deny admission to Habibul on grounds of his age. The plea stated that Habibul has no gap in his studies and him coming from a private school to a government school cannot be a ground for differentiation.