The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered that unaided private schools will remain in the purview of Right to Information and their details will be accessible to public.
After hearing the final arguments, the court disposed off the petition filed by Delhi State Public School Management Association in January 2011 challenging Central Information Centre’s order. Justice Rajiv Shakdher upheld an interim order by the court which was issued in December the same year. It was a setback for private schools as the court also supported CIC’s order.
Upholding the interim order, Justice Rajiv Shakdher on Thursday directed private schools to put up the information on number of seats available in all classes, total vacancies, number of seats in general category, number of seats in economically weak category (EWS) and total applications received under EWS quota on school notice board and get it uploaded on the Directorate of Education website for public use. However, the court exempted schools from providing their financial records to the DoE, which the CIC order had directed.
This decision will impact 2,000 private schools and 500 aided schools and will relieve the parents of the stress of running from pillar to post to enquire about the seat availability in schools. In 2010, the Central Information Commission (CIC) had directed unaided schools to make all their information available to the DoE, including the financial details, which could be uploaded on the website. The interim order by the high court had upheld all the directions by CIC except the one that asked the schools to reveal financial information.
The court has also upheld CIC’s decision that the “Directorate of Education shall upload on its website, details of budgetary allocation and management of private schools. This information shall also be updated every month.”