The Delhi High Court is hearing pleas filed by two school groups and parents on the issue
The Department of Education (DoE) told the Delhi High Court on Thursday that the distance criterion for nursery admission in private schools operating on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land was ‘not something new’, and that the schools were ‘misusing’ their autonomy by adopting their own point-based system.
In a contention before Justice Manmohan, the DoE defended Delhi government’s notification regarding the distance criterion for nursery admission, stating that preference should be given to students residing within one km of the school, and if seats are not filled, preference should be given to students living within 1-3 km.
According to DoE guidelines, students living beyond 6 km will be admitted only in case there are vacancies after considering all students within the 6 km area.
Appearing for DoE, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain said private schools were adopting their own point-based system, which includes points on distance too, to grant admission.
“The neighbourhood criterion is not something new,” the ASG argued, and said the issue on which the court now has to decide is whether the definition of criterion given by the government was arbitrary or not.
The court was hearing pleas by parents and two school groups, challenging the Delhi government’s December 19, 2016, and January 7, 2017, notifications, which made it compulsory for 298 private schools built on DDA land to accept nursery admission forms based only on neighbourhood or distance criterion.
The two school groups — Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools and Forum for Promotion of Quality Education — and parents have contended that these circulars are bad in law and have curtailed their fundamental rights.
By way of an interim order, the court had earlier allowed parents to fill application forms for various schools based on the criteria set by them, as well as those set by the Delhi government. Later, the court stayed the government notification asking the private minority unaided schools to accept nursery admission using the neighbourhood criterion.
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