SC notice on Tamil Nadu government's plea against Madras HC's judgment on implementation of RTE Act

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine a plea filed by the Tamil Nadu government against the Madras High Court's order of June 10, 2025, holding only the state is primarily responsible for the expenditures incurred for implementation of the Right to Education Act.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to the writ petitioner, on whose plea the High Court passed its order, while considering on the special leave petition filed by the Tamil Nadu.

Senior advocate P Wilson, representing the state, contended that under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, central and state governments shared concurrent responsibilities for funding education.

He argued that the Madras High Court erred in ruling that only the state is primarily responsible for these expenditures.

The High Court directed the state to bear the entire financial responsibility for the 2025-2026 academic year, while it should have also directed the central government to contribute, he submitted.

When Wilson pointed out that for the academic years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, the central government failed to release Rs 342.69 crores, representing its 60 per cent share for which the bench said that suit filed by Tamil Nadu is pending.

Since that period, the state has covered the entire expenditure, Wilson argued.

The state government contended that the High Court directed it to make reimbursements envisaged under the Section 12(2) of the Right to Education Act, 2009, read with Rule 9 of the Tamil Nadu Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules 2011, leading to a financial burden of Rs 314,98,01,025 upon it.

It claimed the High Court failed to consider the framework and the status of such disbursal of the obligatory financial contribution of the central government under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme and declared that the funds payable to the state government representing the central government’s share towards discharging the RTE obligations need not be linked to the National Education Policy-2020 i.e. NEP-2020.