Does RTE Act apply to minority-run schools? SC refers issue to larger Bench

Does the Right to Education (RTE) Act apply to minority-run schools?

Doubting the correctness of its 2014 verdict exempting minority schools from the applicability of the RTE Act, the Supreme Court on Monday referred the contentious issue to a larger Bench for an authoritative pronouncement.

"We hasten to observe with utmost humility at our command that the decision in Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust case (2014) might have, unknowingly, jeopardised the very foundation of universal elementary education. Exemption of minority institutions from the RTE Act leads to fragmentation of the common schooling vision and weakening of the idea of inclusivity and universality envisioned by Article 21A,” a Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Manmohan said.

Writing the verdict for the Bench, Justice Datta said, “We respectfully express our doubt as to whether Pramati insofar as it exempts application of the RTE Act to minority schools, whether aided or unaided, falling under clause 1 has been correctly decided."

The Bench held that qualifying the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) was mandatory for appointment as teachers and also in-service teachers aspiring to be promoted as prescribed by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in 2011.

Teachers having less than five years' service left may continue in service till they attain the age of superannuation without qualifying the TET, it said.

However, the top court held that the TET requirement under the RTE Act wouldn't apply to minority educational institutions, until the larger Bench decided the issue regarding the applicability of the RTE Act to minority-run schools.

Article 30 of the Constitution deals with the right of religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their own.

The Bench said it was "distressed" to note from the materials placed on record, including a study of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, that the exclusion had created a fertile ground for misuse.

Article 21A deals with Right to Education and says, "The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine." The Act ensured children get a range of entitlements such as basic infrastructure, trained teachers, books, uniforms and mid-day meals, it noted.

However, minority schools excluded from the RTE Act's purview were not necessarily bound to provide these facilities, it said.

"Some minority schools might provide a few facilities as mandated by the RTE Act, but others may fall short leaving their students without access to such mandated facilities. For many of these students, such benefits are not just amenities but affirmations of belonging, equality, and recognition," the Bench noted.

The RTE Act also ensures common curricular standards through notified academic authorities which guarantee quality education based on constitutional values to every child.

"Minority institutions, however, operate without such uniform guidelines, leaving children and their parents uncertain about what and how they are taught, and often disconnected from the national framework of universal learning," it said.

Instead of uniting children irrespective of caste, class, creed, and community, the situation "divides and dilutes" the transformative potential of shared learning spaces, it pointed out.

"If the goal is to build an equal and cohesive society, such exemptions move us in the opposite direction. What commenced as an attempt to protect cultural and religious freedoms has inadvertently created a regulatory loophole, leading to a surge in institutions seeking minority status to bypass the regime ordained by the RTE Act,” it said.