New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS): The Delhi High Court Friday refused to suspend a government notification on the criteria for nursery admissions in the capital on a plea filed by the city's unaided private schools.
Justice Manmohan, issuing notice to the Delhi government, asked it to file its reply within three weeks. The matter was posted for hearing next March 11. However, he declined to suspend the new norms for nursery admissions this year.
The plea, filed by the Action Committee of Unaided Private Schools, challenged the Dec 18 notification of Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung and claimed it was "absolutely illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction".
The court said the matter requires detailed hearing and it cannot be decided in such short time after the schools' counsel asked the court to suspend the notification as the admission process for nursery is set to begin Jan 15.
The court, refusing any interim relief to schools, said: "This academic session you can go on with this notification, we can see for next year."
During the hearing, senior advocates Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Sandeep Sethi said that decision made by the Lt. Governor was in a hurry, without application of mind.
According to the new guidelines, admissions will continue to be done on the 100-point basis. But children living within an eight-kilometre radius will be included in the criteria of "neighbourhood", carrying 70 points.
The schools opposed the government's step of allotting 70 points to neighbourhood children, saying it was against the Ganguly committee recommendation.
"Ganguly committee had said that you cannot restrict people to one area. Giving 70 points out of 100 to neighbourhood is arbitrary," said the advocates representing schools while seeking quashing of notification.
The counsels told the court that the order of the Lt. Governor seriously compromises the autonomy of the private school, which goes against the stand taken by the central government.
"The central government said you must give this freedom to them (schools) as long as there is transparency and objectivity in the admission procedure," the counsels said.
They added that "any curtailment of that fundamental right can be made through a legislative enactment only".
The admission process for nursery classes will start Jan 15, and the last date for submission of applications is Jan 31.
The plea alleged that the guidelines violated the principle of autonomy and that recognised unaided private schools had powers given by the central government to frame their own admission criteria for 75 percent of the seats.
"The notification was issued in absolute contravention and in violation of the guidelines issued by the ministry of human resource department Nov 23, 2010 whereby complete and maximum autonomy was granted to private unaided registered schools to frame their own policy for admission and lay down their own criteria," the plea said.
Schools also claimed that the management of the schools were never consulted by the Lt Governor, thus violating the "principle of natural justice".
The notification was also against a 2002 Supreme Court judgment "giving maximum autonomy", said the counsels.
The schools also said the notification should be quashed as it completely deleted the management quota seats. Till last year, schools could reserve 20 percent of their seats as management quota.
As per the new notification, grandchildren of staff members will also be entitled to a five percent quota. This was earlier extended only to children.
A quarter of the seats have to be reserved for the economically weaker section and disadvantaged group.
Children who have a sibling studying in the same school will get 20 points. Girls will get five points.