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This is an archive article published on July 12, 2013
Reserve 25% seats for children from poor families: HC to Pune school
The Bombay High Court last week ordered St Marys School,Camp,here to reserve 25 per cent seats for children belonging to the weaker sections and disadvantaged group of the society as defined under the Right To Education (RTE) Act 2009.
The Bombay High Court last week ordered St Mary’s School,Camp,here to reserve 25 per cent seats for children belonging to the weaker sections and disadvantaged group of the society as defined under the Right To Education (RTE) Act 2009.
“There were many problems with the admission procedure. First,the school claimed that since they are a minority institution they do not come under the ambit of RTE Act. Then when the admissions started,they took the forms and shortlisted some students without any transparency and called their parents for a meeting. Even thought they are a minority institution,many students belonging to the same minority group were denied admission. Hence I filed a complaint against the school with the Zilla Parishad after which an inquiry was done,” said Advocate Nilesh Borate,respondent in the case.
On May 4,the District Education Officer,Zilla Parishad (ZP) ordered St. Mary’s School,Camp,to cancel its admission procedure and restart the process as per the provisions of RTE Act 2009 which stipulates reservation of 25 per cent seats for children from economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups of the society.
“For the remaining 75 per cent seats,we had directed the school to give admissions on priority basis to minority students as per the guidelines laid down by the state government on May 19. After giving admission to all minority students,the remaining seats in the 75 per cent quota was to be filled by lottery system ensuring transparency,” said KD Bhujbal,the extension education officer who carried out the probe against the school and is also a respondent in the case.
St Mary’s school filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the order of the district education officer (Primary),ZP.
The High Court bench comprising Justice V M Kanade and K R Shriram passed an order directing the school to fill up 75 per cent seats on a first-come-first-serve basis and reserve the remaining 25 per cent seats for students from the weaker sections and disadvantaged groups of society. The next date of hearing is Thursday,July 11. When contacted,St Mary’s Principal,Sujata Mallic,said,“Since the matter is currently in court,I would not like to comment upon it.”
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