DoE to move Supreme Court over nursery admissions

Private schools told not to start admissions yet, they disagree

The Directorate of Education has decided to move the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order that allowed private schools to form their own guidelines for nursery admissions for the 2015-16 academic session.

The DoE also issued notice to schools not to start admissions till January 5.
But the Action Committee for Unaided Recognised Private Schools, an umbrella organisation for institutions, said it will go ahead with the admission process on December 20.

The advocate of DoE has also issued a notice to the action committee, asking it not to begin admissions till the matter is heard by the apex court.

The DoE has decided to file a Special Leave Petition in the apex court against the division bench of the High Court’s order dated December 10, which did not put a stay on the nursery admission and granted private schools autonomy in nursery admissions this season, the notice said.

“The Supreme Court is under vacation till January 5 and the matter will come up for hearing only after the vacation. Till then private schools may not initiate admission process to nursery classes,” added the notice.

President of action committee S K Bhattacharya said they will start admission process to entry-level classes on Saturday. “The High Court in its order has not put a stay on nursery admissions, so why shouldn’t we start the admission process?” he said.

“We have not received any legal notice from the DoE. We are going ahead with the admission process as decided earlier by us,” he added.

Over 1,300 schools are the member of the Action Committee for Unaided Recognised Private Schools, and all of them are going to follow its guidelines.

Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com, said parents are the worst sufferers. “If parents fill forms and the apex court puts a stay on the admissions, their money, time and resources will go down the drain. And all the admissions that will take place starting tomorrow will be considered null and void,” Vohra said.

“It’s really a pathetic situation for parents. Moreover, no school has kept any point for twins,” he added.

On November 28, the High Court had quashed the guidelines issued by the Lieutenant Governor last year and allowed schools to formulate their own criteria for nursery admissions for 2015-16 session.

According to the guidelines issued by the action committee, the general category will have only 25 per cent seats. The committee suggested reserving 25 per cent seats for EWS categories, up to 20 per cent seats for sibling quota, five per cent seats for alumni and staff quota each.

Schools can reserve up to 20 per cent seats for management quota. The LG’s guidelines had scrapped the management quota and allowed 70 points out of 100 to children who live within 8 km radius from a school.
DH News Service