The High Court on Wednesday, said that “private schools must touch their conscience and admit underprivileged students under 25 per cent reservation under the Right to Education Act, 2009”. 

While hearing a batch of petitions, Justice A S Bopanna said that when private schools are ‘selling education’, they must make an effort to allow for at least 25 per cent of ‘philanthropic work’. 

The petitioners, National Public School and others, have contended that despite their school belonging to the linguistic minority category, the government had been sending underprivileged children to them for admission under the 25 per cent quota under the RTE Act. The counsel for the petitioners said that there is a lot of confusion as to whether it is the State or the Centre which grants the status of a minority institution. The counsel said that the advocate general made a statement in the court that the State government does not have the power to grant minority status, but contradictory statements have been made by a minister on the floor of the House. The State government is misleading the parents and public at large by sending children to these linguistic minority schools for admission under the 25 per cent quota, the counsel added.

The State government, on the other hand, said that it does not have the power and relied on a Supreme Court judgement of 2005 which states that as per the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, it is only the Union government which has the power to grant the minority status for an institution. The bench adjourned the hearing to March 2.

Petition disposed
The High Court on Wednesday disposed of a petition seeking directions to remove the encroachment on footpaths in the City for easy accessibility to the pedestrians. 

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice Ravi Malimath accepted the suggestions made by the petitioner, Jenny Pinto and others to BBMP. The petitioners have contended they were not satisfied with the efforts made by BBMP to remove the encroachments. The court directed the Palike to ensure that suggestions made by the petitioners are considered while removing encroachments on footpath.