The Arvind Kejriwal Government suffered yet another setback after the Delhi High Court stayed its decision to scrap two more criteria, besides the management quota and 11 other norms, for nursery admissions in private unaided schools in the Capital.
“Till further order of this court, criteria 2 and 24 are stayed” Justice Manmohan said on Thursday, adding that the main petitions were yet to be heard on merits.
The petition was moved by the Sanskriti School situated in Chanakyapuri area.
The two criteria stayed by the High Court relate to admissions to children of parents having inter-State transferable jobs and Government employees. The court had on February 4 stayed 11 of the 62 other criteria, including those relating to the proven track records of parents, their proficiency in music or sports, their empirical achievements, the gender of the child and whether the kid was the first-born or adopted.
Granting interim relief to Sanskriti School that moved the petition to quash the Delhi Government’s January 6 circular, the court issued notice to the Government’s Education Department and tagged their petition with the pleas filed by ‘Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools and Forum for Promotion of Quality Education For All’.
The associations have also sought quashing of the decision to scrap management and all other quota, except for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in Delhi’s private unaided schools for nursery admissions.
The court also asked the Government to file their response by March 14, when it will take up all the matter. The court order came on the plea of Sanskrit School, which through its counsel Ramesh Singh submitted that they do not fit in the 11 criteria, which was already stayed by the court.
It may be noted that on February 16, the division bench had also upheld its single judge order staying AAP Government’s decision to scrap management quota as well as 11 other criteria for admissions.
The division bench had concurred with the findings of its single judge’s February 4 interim order, saying the judge was justified in arriving at a prima facie conclusion that the DoE order of January 6 was without the authority of law. The Government had approached the division bench against single judge’s February 4 order.
Earlier, Justice Manmohan in his interim order had said the Delhi Government’s January 6 order, scrapping a total of 62 criteria and management quota, was “issued without any authority” and was in “direct conflict” with lieutenant-Governor’s 2007 order on nursery admissions in private unaided schools.
Also, he had said the court was of prima facie view that “there is nothing in the 11 criteria which would show that they are unreasonable or
based on whims and fancies and /or they can lead to mal-administration.”
The Department of Education had contended that its January 6 order scrapping many criteria and management quota was validly and lawfully issued to ensure that admissions to entry-level classes like nursery are made in a “fair and reasonable” manner. It had claimed that the decision was taken “without any view to interfering in the autonomy of private schools”.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said his Government had decided to scrap the quota criteria alleging that private unaided schools in Delhi had become a “hub of corruption” as they were running “admission rackets” under the garb of management quota.
The court had said it was only an interim stay with respect to 11 criteria and made it clear that allegations of malpractices should be investigated and taken to their logical conclusion.