Saint Kabir, Chandigarh: Refusal of recognition to school under Punjab and Haryana High Court lens

Chandigarh, May 19

The refusal of recognition to St Kabir Public School beyond March 31 has come under judicial scanner with the Punjab and Haryana High Court putting the Chandigarh Administration and its functionaries on notice following a plea by the Independent School Association Chandigarh and another petitioner.

Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj’s Bench was told that the petitioner-association had initially moved the court for quashing of every memo/noting seeking to make it mandatory for private unaided schools to admit children/students under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category following alleged obligation under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and/or Allotment of Land to Educational Institutions (Schools) etc on Leasehold Basis in Chandigarh Scheme, 1996.

It was, among other things, also seeking direction/clarification that no fee/funds were to be charged from such children/ students to be admitted up to Class VIII. It had specifically sought directions to the respondents not to impose any condition on the private unaided minority schools for admitting students belonging to the EWS category.

Interim directions were also sought to restrain the respondents from asking the petitioners to admit students belonging to EWS/Disadvantaged Group (DG) category and to allow them to charge fee from the students so admitted under the 2009 Act and/or 1996 scheme, keeping in view that the respondents were not reimbursing expenditure incurred on such students. Directions were further sought to restrain the respondents from taking any “precipitate action” against the petitioners.

Senior advocate Aashish Chopra, with counsel Yash Pal Sharma, submitted that the High Court directed that EWS students admitted to private unaided schools would be liable to be transferred to neighbourhood government schools if it was found that all vacancies there had not been filled. One of the respondents, in an illegal, highhanded and arbitrary manner, resorted to precipitate action against the member school of the petitioner-association notwithstanding the fact that the writ petitions were at an advanced stage and ripe for arguments.

A respondent refused recognition to the school beyond March 31, essentially revoking the provisional recognition granted to it.

Chopra added that the UT had been following a ‘sui generis’ or a unique method of granting ‘provisional recognition’ periodically to schools, but the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010, dealing with procedure for recognition, did not anywhere provide for provisional/yearly/tenure recognition. There was only one-time recognition unless withdrawn.

“The entire genesis for serving a show-cause notice was an alleged obligation being imposed on the school to reserve seats for students belonging to EWS/DG category under the 2009 Act and/or the 1996 Scheme, notwithstanding the fact that the school is not obligated to provide admissions to EWS/DG category students under either the 2009 Act or the 1996 Scheme,” Chopra argued.

It was added that the school was a minority educational institution certified as such by the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions under the provisions of the National Commission for Minority. Being a minority institute, it was not under an obligation to reserve seats for EWS/DG students.