Delhi HC issues notice to Centre on PIL seeking common syllabus for madrassas, vedic schools

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 22

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre on a PIL challenging certain provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009 which excluded madrassas and vedic pathshalas from its ambit.

A Bench led by Chief Justice DN Patel asked the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Law and Justice and Ministry of Home Affairs to respond by March 30 to the petition filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

Upadhyay—a Delhi BJP leader and advocate—has challenged sections 1 (4) and 1 (5) of the RTE Act for being “arbitrary and irrational”. He has sought the introduction of a common syllabus and curriculum for children across the country, saying the absence of a common curriculum in the mother language led to the fostering and perpetuation of ignorance.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had on February 11 refused to entertain his PIL on the issue and asked him to approach the high court. “Why don’t you go to the high court? The top court had asked him.

The PIL contended that it’s the duty of the Union to effectuate a common education system but it has failed in the fulfilment of this necessary obligation as it has simply adopted the pre-existing National Curriculum Framework (NCF) of 2005.

The right of a child should not be restricted only to free education but must be extended to have equal quality education without discrimination on the ground of a child’s social economic and cultural background, he argued.

He urged the court to declare Sections 1(4) and 1(5) arbitrary, irrational and violative of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 21 and direct the Centre to implement a common syllabus and common curriculum for the students of I-VIII standard throughout the country.

A common minimum education programme for children up to 14 years would achieve the code of common culture, removal of disparity and depletion of discriminatory values in human relations, he contended.