Clarify whether RTE Act applies to nursery admissions, asks court

New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) The Delhi High Court has asked the central government to clarify by Wednesday whether the Right to Education Act applied to nursery admissions and if it did, what procedure was to be followed for it.

The court which had earlier reserved the order on the plea challenging two government notifications empowering unaided private schools to formulate their own criteria on nursery admission, asked the law and justice ministry to inform it by Wednesday whether the act is applicable on nursery admission also.

A division bench of Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justice V.K. Jain Tuesday said: “Two things you need to make clear is whether the Right to Education Act is applicable on nursery admission or not and if not applicable, then what is the procedure to be followed for the nursery admission.”

The court would hear the matter Wednesday.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Rajeeve Mehra had earlier said that Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (also known as RTE Act) stipulates that a child, between the age group of 6 to 14, would be treated as a child covered under the legislation and hence, the nursery admission would not under its purview.

The court was hearing a petition filed by NGO Social Jurist against the two notifications of the union human resource development ministry and the Delhi government’s directorate of education, empowering unaided private schools to formulate their own nursery admission criteria.

The PIL by the NGO through advocate Ashok Agarwal alleged that these two notifications had given a free hand to all unaided recognized private schools.

IANS 2013-02-12 20:52:03