Bengaluru: Observing that keeping the students out of school violates not only their fundamental right to education guaranteed under Article 21A of the Indian constitution, but even their human right, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday ruled in favour of several minors who had approached the court seeking admission to certain schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. A division bench headed by Chief Justice D.H. Waghela also said the erring schools should hold special classes for these students to cover for portions they missed out due to delay in admissions.
The schools include — Vibgyor School, N.S. Palya; Vibgyor School Somasandra Palya; Vibgyor School, Vittasandra; St Miras School, BTM Layout; Christ School, Sadduguntepalya; St Xavier School, Bettadasanapura. Around 27 students, who had filed the petition represented through their parents and guardians, had stated that the respondent schools had refused their plea for admission under RTE. They had stated that RTE Act was not applicable as they were minority educational institutions.
However, the court dismissed the petition with respect to one school - Clarence School, J.P. Nagar, as it was a minority educational institution and observed that the school does not figure in the list of notified unaided institutions under the RTE Act. The court while ruling in favour of minors, has further noted in its order that the admission of the children would not put the managements of the six schools to any loss as the state government has come forward to reimburse the fees of these children.
“Thus, not finding any merit in the resistance of the six schools (except Clarence School), we allow this petition by directing the respondent schools to admit the students selected under the RTE Act without any further loss of time,” ordered a division bench headed by Justice D.H. Waghela.
