The Kerala High Court on Friday held that a provision in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act which prohibited holding back promotion of a student or expulsion of a student is applicable to the unaided minority education institutions as well.
Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque, criticising a school management in Cherthala for not promoting a student from Class VI to VII, observed that the constitutional protection was not available to a minority institution to hold back the promotion of students till the completion of the elementary education.
The court added that no minority institutions could say that it had the right to trample upon the rights claimed by the others which were not derogatory to the goals of Article 30(1) of the Constitution. The minority right was essentially a right to create a feeling of security. The minority institutions could not claim any superior right in terms of the Constitution to deny rights of others. The court further observed that denial of promotion up to the elementary level in minority schools would amount to denial of the fundamental right of the children, as it would have a direct bearing on the right to life of the children guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
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The court made the observation while allowing a writ petition filed by Shobha George seeking a directive to the management of St.Jospeh’s Public School, Pattanakkad, Cherthala, to comply with the directive of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Right to promote her grandson to the next class