The Supreme Court today agreed to hear tomorrow a plea of Centre challenging the Delhi High Court decision setting aside the 60 per cent quota in the prestigious Sanskriti School here for wards of Group-A government officials.
“Let it come tomorrow,” a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi said when Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi sought urgent listing of the petition against the order of the high court.
While setting aside the 60 per cent quota in Sanskriti School the high court in it November 6 judgement had said that it was “akin to the erstwhile segregation of white and black students in the US and violated constitutional provisions of equality and right to education”.
60 per cent seats in the school are reserved for children of Group-A officers, 25 per cent for those from the economically weaker sections, 10 per cent for wards of rest of the society and 5 per cent for the staff of the school.
The court in its judgement had also observed that various expert commissions have said that the current school system in India and abroad promotes and maintains a wide chasm between the advantaged and disadvantaged.
The high court had taken suo motu cognizance of the issue in 2006 after reports that the school was charging “nearly 40 per cent less fee from the children of Group-A officers of the Union Government vis-a-vis other children”.
( Source – PTI )
