Kochi: Kerala High Court on Friday fined St Joseph Public School, Pattanakkad, Cherthala, for not promoting a sixth standard student to seventh standard. The court reiterated that elementary education is the right of every child and asked the school to pay Rs 35,000. Justice A. Muhammed Mustaque issued the order while considering a petition filed by Shobha George for her grandson Acquin Peter who was not promoted by the school.
The petitioner argued that the school did not even comply with the order of Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Right passed on October 13, 2015. The petitioner referring to the Right To Education Act contended that Acquin lost a year due to the apathy of the school. She sought a directive to promote him to the eighth standard.
The court, however, refused to do it and asked the school to pay a compensation of Rs 25,000 for the loss of an academic year and deposit the amount as a fixed deposit so that the child can use it once he attains the age of 18.
The court asked the school to pay Rs 10,000 for not complying with the commission order towards the legal costs. The amount should be deposited in a month. The school took the stand that it has minority status and so the Right To Education Act will not apply to it.
The court refused to accept the contentions and observed, “minority institutes have no superior right that can be claimed by them to deny rights to others. They cannot claim that to protect their identity they have a right to trample upon the rights of others. The Right to Education Act mandates that no student should be held back during the school education,” it observed. After the RTE came into force the dropout rape has been reduced, the court observed.
