Students completing Class 10 from govt schools have inherent right to continue, UT tells HC

The reply has been filed by Harsuhinder Pal Singh Brar, Director School Education (DSE) Chandigarh, through UT Additional Standing Counsel Sumeet Jain. The Bench of Justice Vikas Bahl has adjourned the matter for hearing on July 6.

It has been submitted by Chandigarh DSE that number of aspirants for UT government schools far outnumber the seats available as several students have applied from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana schools. The reply mentioned that in 2022, some of the Class 10 pass out of government schools of UT could not get admission in Class XI in such schools. Therefore a special drive was carried out to ensure admission to such students, which led to 2,430 number of these students opting to take admissions.

The reply mentioned that in 2023, 11,794 students of government schools of Chandigarh appeared for Class 10 CBSE exams, and there exists 42 government senior secondary schools with 13,875 seats in Class 11. The UT argued that retaining of seats in Class 11 pass outs is actually not reservation in truest sense as alleged by the petitioner and in fact is for students studying in UT government schools to continue their studies in the higher class.