Delhi high court has directed the government to admit in its school a Class IX student whose application was rejected on the ground that the last school attended by him was neither a state-run nor a state-aided institution.
The court said the plea taken by Delhi government-run Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya in north Delhi’s Civil Lines area while denying admission to Aditya Gaur was arbitrary and discriminatory and could not be sustained.
Aditya, a resident of Karol Bagh, moved the high court after the school allegedly told him that the Central Institute of Education (CIE) Experimental Basic School of the University of Delhi in which he studied till Class VIII did not fall in any of the two categories of the schools from which students were normally admitted.
The counsel for the government argued that the objective of its school was to prepare children from economically-weaker section of society for higher academic achievements. With this objective, admissions have been limited to only those students who in the two years preceding their applications studied in Delhi government or government-aided schools.
Dissatisfied about the contention, the court ruled: “If the purpose is to train students who are not able to afford public schools then the university school is found to be no different from the Delhi government or government-aided schools.”
The court told the government school to admit Aditya within a week. In his petition, Aditya mentioned that he even qualified the written test held by the school but he was denied admission.
“Such denial of admission by the Delhi government-run school is arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioner as guaranteed to him under the constitution,” said the petition.
Aditya’s counsel Ashok Agarwal argued that since the CIE Experimental Basic School is a public-funded school, there is no justification on the part of the Delhi government not to treat it at par with government-aided schools.
