<p>The High Court on Thursday advised the State government to fix the upper income limit for admission of students to private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act to Rs One lakh from the existing Rs 3.5 lakhs.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Hearing a Public Interest Litigation by K Nagesh, a diploma student and two others, the Division bench comprising acting Chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao and Justice B V Nagarathna termed the State Government order fixing Rs 3.5 lakh a year as the income limit as “irrational” and wondered how the State Government arrived at this figure. <br /><br />“How did you fix this as income limit. Do you think people earning Rs 28,000 to Rs 29,000 a month as disadvantaged class? It is totally irrational and atrocious,” the bench said.<br /><br />Pointing out that a first division assistant in the High Court earns upto Rs 15,000 a month and a software engineer gets Rs. 25,000 per month, the bench said, “You are just helping the middle class children to get seats under the RTE quota. How can the students from BPL families whose annual income is about Rs 30,000 compete with students whose family income is Rs 3.5 lakh” <br /><br />The petitioners had moved the High Court challenging the Government notification dated May, 8. 2012, which has fixed the income ceiling at Rs 3.5 lakh. <br /><br />They had also sought to strike down Rule 8 (4) of Karnataka Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules 2012, which states that reimbursement of expenses by government be done once in six months. <br /><br />The petitioners had also sought directions to specify reservation for admission of students for each category in the fixed 25 per cent. The rule just specifies reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at 7.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. <br /></p>
<p>The High Court on Thursday advised the State government to fix the upper income limit for admission of students to private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act to Rs One lakh from the existing Rs 3.5 lakhs.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Hearing a Public Interest Litigation by K Nagesh, a diploma student and two others, the Division bench comprising acting Chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao and Justice B V Nagarathna termed the State Government order fixing Rs 3.5 lakh a year as the income limit as “irrational” and wondered how the State Government arrived at this figure. <br /><br />“How did you fix this as income limit. Do you think people earning Rs 28,000 to Rs 29,000 a month as disadvantaged class? It is totally irrational and atrocious,” the bench said.<br /><br />Pointing out that a first division assistant in the High Court earns upto Rs 15,000 a month and a software engineer gets Rs. 25,000 per month, the bench said, “You are just helping the middle class children to get seats under the RTE quota. How can the students from BPL families whose annual income is about Rs 30,000 compete with students whose family income is Rs 3.5 lakh” <br /><br />The petitioners had moved the High Court challenging the Government notification dated May, 8. 2012, which has fixed the income ceiling at Rs 3.5 lakh. <br /><br />They had also sought to strike down Rule 8 (4) of Karnataka Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules 2012, which states that reimbursement of expenses by government be done once in six months. <br /><br />The petitioners had also sought directions to specify reservation for admission of students for each category in the fixed 25 per cent. The rule just specifies reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at 7.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. <br /></p>
