The Delhi High Court has refused to interfere with the city administration’s decision to give cash to students admitted under EWS and disadvantaged group categories in private schools for buying their uniforms.
A bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Renu Bhatnagar dismissed a review petition by NGO ‘Justice For All’ urging the court to reconsider its January 23 judgment on the issue. As per the petitioner, the Delhi government ought to provide uniforms to the students belonging to EWS and disadvantaged group categories in aided and unaided private schools and not cash as per the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. The Delhi government had earlier said the cabinet believed that procurement and distribution of uniforms would not be feasible due to operational constraints and therefore, a new policy decision was taken in June 2025 to pay a suitable amount for uniforms to students.
In a decision dated October 12, the bench opined that the grounds raised in the review petition were an attempt to re-argue the case in its entirety and that unless any policy decision is so arbitrary, whimsical and capricious that it shocks the conscience of the courts, it cannot be interfered with. “The decision of the government that it shall provide cash to the students instead of providing uniforms because of the difficulties faced by the government cannot be said to be completely arbitrary, whimsical or capricious,” the court said. “All the materials provided by the GNCTD, including the new policy dated 10.06.2025 and note for Council of Ministers, have been considered by this court before coming to the decision that the policy dated 10.06.2025 is not against the mandate of the statute,” it concluded.
On January 23, the high court had upheld the city government’s decision to directly give cash to students admitted under EWS and disadvantaged group categories in private schools for buying their uniforms, observing that the authorities will have a “genuine” difficulty in processing individual orders for each student’s uniform.
It had held that the government’s decision to give subsidy for uniforms through ‘Direct Benefit Transfer’ was not contrary to the mandate of the Right To Education Act and its rules, and would ensure that uniforms were available to the students in time.
“Undoubtedly, it would be impossible to carry out the exercise of taking measurements of every student, placing orders for different kinds of uniform cloth on the GeM portal, after procurement of the material getting the uniforms stitched as per the measurements and finally distributing the uniforms in schools before the commencement of a new session,” it had stated.