The State government on Monday told the High Court of Karnataka that it had rejected the claim of 13 educational institutions for linguistic minority status under the Right to Education Act. Processing of the remaining applications was under way, it said.
A submission in this regard was made during the hearing of appeals filed by the government questioning the April 30 order passed by a single judge, which asked the State not to compel 25 per cent RTE quota on educational institutions prior to determining their minority status.
Advocate-General Ravivarma Kumar said that of the 15 applications processed so far by a committee set up to determine minority status, 13 were rejected, including the one filed by National Public School (NPS), Bangalore.
He said that the authorities needed more time to decide on the applications of other educational institutions and pleaded with the court to adjourn further hearing on the appeals.
Mr. Kumar said that all 13 institutions would now have to admit students chosen by the jurisdictional educational officer as per norms to class 1 under the RTE Act, as they can’t seek exemption from RTE now because they were no more a minority educational institution.
Meanwhile, counsel representing NPS told the court that he would seek instruction from the school management on the possibility of admitting five children, who have approached the court under the RTE, though he submitted that NPS, Indiranagar, had already filled all seats pursuant to the stay order against RTE quota by the High Court earlier. Following this, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice H.G. Ramesh adjourned further hearing, while disposing of the appeals related to those institutions whose applications for minority status have been decided by the committee.
