Nursery admissions to resume as HC lifts stay

In a major relief to parents, the Delhi High Court on Thursday lifted its stay on nursery admissions and ordered its resumption with certain directions, including kids selected in draw of lots under neighbourhood criteria will get admission.

A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed, which heard two separate petitions for almost the whole day, passed its interim order in the evening saying, “Appellants, who have 70 points under neighbourhood criteria and were selected in the draw of lots, will not be disturbed. They will be given the admission.”

It, however, clarified that kids, who emerged winner in the draw of lots in more than one school, “shall choose one school and will have to relinquish other seats on or before April 9. Otherwise, they shall lose the right of admission in any of them.”

The bench, also comprising Justice Siddharth Mridul, asked the Directorate of Education (DoE) to collect the data from all unaided recognised private schools about the number of seats, which fall vacant and remained unfilled and provide it to the court on next date of hearing on April 16.

The court said on the next date, it will try to find a solution by considering the number of remaining seats and the claim of the parents who were initially given 5 points under inter-state transfer category.

The government later had done away with the criteria.

At the fag end of the hearing, the Acting Chief Justice lost his cool after mother of a kid alleged that her views have not been considered.

“Use such kind of language against politicians and not against a court of law. I have been hearing patiently the submissions. I can tell you nobody in the country can give you such a patient hearing. Usually I do not lose my cool,” Justice Ahmed said.

Earlier, the court had stayed the fresh draw of lots being conducted for admission in nursery classes in pursuance of the March 6 order of the single judge bench and had ordered that no further admission will take place without its permission.