The Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to suspend the admission process for pre-school class in city schools, scheduled to start Jan 2 next year.
Hearing a plea challenging the Delhi government’s guidelines on admissions by schools, the court said it would decide the issue Jan 6.
NGO Social Jurist had moved court against the order of the government permitting unaided private schools to proceed with the admission of children aged three years and above in pre-school class.
The bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice R.S. Endlaw directed the Delhi government to file its reply on the issue within three weeks.
The NGO said in its petition that the order of Delhi’s directorate of education (DoE) violated an earlier judgment of the high court which said that no child below the age of four years, would be admitted for formal schooling.
The petitioner sought a “stay of the order dated Dec 16, 2011 of the Delhi government, to the extent it permits unaided recognised private schools of Delhi to conduct admission to pre-school as entry level class in the academic session 2012-13”.
Ashok Agarwal, counsel for the NGO, alleged that the government had failed to prevent unaided recognised private schools from admitting children below four years of age in formal school.
Seeking a ban on the pre-school class where kids aged above three years, but below four years, were being admitted, the NGO pleaded that formal education should start with the pre-primary class where children above four years were admitted.
The petition alleged that the government’s order, was issued “in haste and in great disregard to the orders having been passed by this court in the public interest litigation and also with a view to frustrate the present proceedings”.
