The Delhi High Court directed a private school in the national capital to allow a 6 year-old boy belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category to attend Class 1 while hearing the boy’s plea against the school’s refusal to let him attend classes.A single judge bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani while issuing notice to the school said, “In order to not waste the academic year, the school is directed to permit the petitioner to attend Class 1 in the EWS/DG category. This order shall continue during the pendency of the present proceedings until varied or set aside”. The matter is next listed for hearing on October 10.
Advocate Kumar Utkarsh appearing for the student, in the plea filed through his father, said after the allotment of seats in Nursery for the academic session 2022-2023 by the Directorate of Education (DOE), Delhi Government, and after an earlier round of litigation, the student was permitted to attend school.Utkarsh submitted due to some matrimonial disputes between the student’s parents, he had to stay away from school between November 2022 to July 2023, as his mother took him away to their native place.Utkarsh said the boy never withdrew from the school nor did he take a school leaving certificate but upon his return, he has been disallowed from attending classes by the school, which he pointed out is an illegal act.The plea sought a direction to the school to permit him to attend classes in Nursery or the next higher class under the Economically Weaker Section/Disadvantaged Group category in the academic year 2023-2024.
The plea states the action on the school’s part to not allow the boy to attend classes in “Nursery or next higher class under EWS/DG category in the academic year 2023-2024 is violative” of his fundamental rights to education as guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, 21, 21-A, and 38 of the Constitution read with the provisions of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and Delhi government counsel said the student is still shown as being enrolled in the school on the “MIS portal of the DOE”, and the seat has not been carried forward or allocated to any other student. He submitted that the school is required to take permission from the DOE before dis-enrolling any student from the EWS/DG category which the school had not done.Delhi School Education Act, 1973, and the Rules framed thereunder.
