Parents move HC after 15-month-old child removed from pre-school in Mumbai over home address

It mentions that the family’s decision to move to Versova was a temporary arrangement owing to renovation work at their Vile Parle house, which is near the school. The petition also had a list of several other students who are admitted in the same pre-school with residential addresses in areas beyond Juhu circle.

The Kookaburra, a pre-school which boasts celebrity parents, including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, on its website has two branches — in Juhu and in Lokhandwala. The admission of the petitioner’s child was finalised in the Juhu branch in May 2023, after submitting valid address proof and payment of fees.

On September 2, the parents received a call from the preschool informing them not to send their child to their Juhu branch. The parent claimed that the authorities never gave any time or room to discuss the situation and only communicated by sending messages, leaving them no choice but to send bank account details for the refund of fees.

The petitioner’s wife received a call from the pre-school asking them not to send their child to pre-school as they had “lied about their address proof” and called it a misconduct. The school asked the parents to withdraw the admission, warning to expel her otherwise, which would be “bad for her career”, states the petition.

As per the petition, the pre-school asked the parents to shift their daughter to Lokhandwala branch. The parents declined as their child was attending the Juhu branch for three months and became used to the environment.

“The admission confirmation included the address proof. Either they should have not given the admission or should have let my daughter continue for the year. They have discriminated against my daughter who does not even understand what rejection is. It has been a month already and she asks sometimes about going to school,” said Gada, adding that he was born and brought up in their Vile Parle house where he is staying for 35 years. “All our documents have the Vile Parle address as it is our primary residence,” he added.

Advocate for the petitioner, Parshva Bhankharia of Pentagon Legal, said, “On circumstantial evidence, it clearly seems that the Kookaburra pre-school has discriminated against the petitioner’s child.”

There was no response from the pre-school management to repeated queries.