RTE: HC seeks list of educational institutes refusing to comply

 The High Court ordered the State government on Thursday to furnish the list of educational institutes which have refused to comply with the directions of Supreme Court and implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Hearing a petition by a City-based advocate and party in person S Vasudeva, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice A S Bopanna directed the government to furnish the details within two weeks.

The counsel for Karnataka Unaided School Managements’ Association (Kusma), K V Dhananjaya, submitted that closure of private schools in July was aimed at sending a message to frame appropriate guidelines to define minority institutes that have been excluded from the RTE Act. “We had several questions about the (status of) minority institutions, but they (government) do not have any answer,” he said.

The Bench, however, refused to buy the argument. “Don’t delay the implementation of the Act. It is totally an unfair submission. There are numerous Supreme Court judgments. If you do not know the definition of minority, you are not the one,” the Chief Justice remarked. “It is obvious you do not want to look into the law.”

The government counsel, R Devdas, mentioned that the affidavits of minority schools were being studied by the government, and stressed that the very purpose of the petition no longer survived. The Chief Justice then said: “ It will survive if this is the attitude. I know many religious minority institutions which welcome the Act. Only those in business are opposing it.”

When the petitioner pointed out that the government neither conducted a survey nor gathered information on the implementation of the Act, the Bench directed it to collect information and inform the Court about the institutes which have not complied with the orders.