Vidya Valley School in Pune declared illegal

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The school, however, denied the charge and said that in over a decade, no officer had raised any objections. “If we were running illegally, why did they realise it only now? For a decade, so many programmes of Zilla Parishad were carried out here, but no one objected. It’s only because of an incident with a education official who is trying to harass us that the department is raking up insignificant issues. I am not bothered and will face them in court, if needed,” said Vivek Gupta, trustee and founder director of Vidya Valley School.

Shaikh said an inquiry committee had been instituted to look into complaints against the school that it was denying admissions under the Right to Education Act, which stipulates that 25 per cent of seats be reserved for the students from the economically weaker sections. “These points were given in writing to the school on October 13. The principal was asked to file her reply by October 26, but they didn’t,” Shaikh said.

“On October 30, when the inquiry committee visited the school again, they were stopped at the gate and insulted by Gupta and another employee. They threatened to complain to the education minister and hence I asked my officials to file a police complaint against them, following which our officials called on police helpline 100. But they removed the police out of premises too. Since police asked us to give us a written complaint, we have asked our officials to file criminal offence under sections 353, 504 and 506 of Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of RTE act. After this incident, we started examining the papers of the school since they didn’t co-operate. We found their registration was invalid,” said Shaikh.

Meanwhile, Gupta said the action was motivated by personal enmity. “The education officer had threatened us while leaving the campus. They are digging out unrelated issues against us. As far as not allowing police goes, they came with stenguns. How can we allow that in a school? Students will get scared,” said Gupta.