PTI 

New Delhi, May 10: In a decision that is likely to bring relief to tiny tots and a smile on the face of their parents, the Delhi High Court today directed that no private schools should conduct interviews of either children or their parents at the time of admission to the nursery classes.

A Division Bench of acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice S N Aggarwal granted four weeks' time to the managements of the private schools to end the practise of interviewing parents and children at the time of admissions into the schools.

The Bench expressed anguish at the failure of the schools' managements to come out with any suitable reply on the issue despite the court's earlier direction on December 9, 2005, banning such interviews.

The court recalled that even though the Association of Unaided Private Schools had assured in an affidavit that suitable parameters would be evolved to dispense with the practise, no such efforts had been made even four months after the assurance.

The directions of the Bench followed a PIL filed by an NGO Social Jurist through its counsel Ashok Aggarwal highlighting the practise of the private schools to interview both parents and children of tender age at the time of admissions.

The organisation complained that the practise not only caused embarrassment and inconvenience to parents of the tiny tots, but also subjected the children to severe mental trauma.