Tuesday may see an end to the uncertainty prevailing over nursery admissions in the Capital. The Supreme Court on Monday set a 24-hour deadline for the Delhi lieutenant-Governor to consider a one-time proposal to hike five seats in nursery classes of all private schools to accommodate inter-State transfer (IST) category students, on whose plea the SC had stayed the admission process.
Blaming the Government for bringing a notification too late on February 27, 2014 scrapping the IST category, the Bench of Justices Hl Dattu, MY Eqbal and SA Bobde said, “On the date of interview, you do not change the rules mid-stream. They have come on transfer from different places. What should happen to these studentsIJ Had they known this earlier, they would have left their wards back home.”
The court was conscious of the inconvenience its stay order caused. “We know by our interim order people would be affected. But by the order (scrapping IST) the clock will be turned against them (petitioners) forever.” Under the points-based system for nursery admissions, out of 100 points, an IST category student got benefit of five points. They competed with other students for the 30,000 seats and secured admission having 70 points to their credit. Post-February 27, they were rendered without any seat and were asked to compete again with 2.5 lakh students for roughly 2,000 seats that were left.
The Delhi Government represented by senior advocate Raju Ramachandran informed the court that a review of the policy became essential as out of the 1,500 odd applications under IST, over 800 were found to be fake. “How can you do itIJ Your earlier notification (of December 18, 2013) was accepted by us. You could have advised them to take leave of the court,” the Bench said.
For the IST category parents, senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta argued that the Government was free to act against “fake” applicants but could not deprive the genuine applicants who had secured admissions. He informed the court that seats in nursery are limited as compared to primary classes. As a provisional arrangement, he proposed that if schools could be asked to increase intake by five seats this year, the IST students who had secured admissions could be adjusted this year.
“This is a matter where you (Delhi administration) should take a decision and see all of them get a place,” the Bench told Ramachandran, asking him to consider the suggestion of Gupta. “For this year, as a one-time measure, allow schools to have five-six seats extra in pre-primary. By doing so you will be solving the problem of these 70-pointers instead of you going up and down and making parents spend so much money on such silly matters.”
Ramachandran readily agreed to the proposal but sought a court order as these were private schools. But the Bench raised apprehensions. “The schools are not before us. They may say we don’t have infrastructure. First have a talk with Excellency (l-G) and take schools into confidence,” the Bench said, adding, “If it’s not possible in your hands, we will consider the matter.”