Class 1 KV admission: HC dismisses plea against 6 year age rule

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a petition that challenged 6 year age criteria for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a petition that challenged 6 year age criteria for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas. Earlier, the central government opposed the grant of any interim relief to the petitions which have challenged the change in minimum age criteria of six years from five years for class, saying that the decision is not sudden as it is in terms of the National Education Policy which came in 2020 and the policy is not being challenged.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, appearing for the Centre, urged the court on Friday, to not interdict at this age as its order would have a pan-India impact and create heterogeneity amongst the students who would be aged five to seven years.

"The senior lawyer submitted that the aggrieved students can take admission in other schools and can't bank on KVs," for admissions.

He added that 21 States have implemented the six-plus regime for class 1 and since KV is for central government employees who are transferred from one place to another, there is a need to ensure uniformity concerning admission age.

Sharma informed that seven lakh applications have been received against one lakh seats.

KVs are the beacon of education and the first to implement the NEP, he said.

In one of the petitions before the court, a five-year-old girl has claimed that the change in age criteria, which was earlier five years, is in violation of the right to education guaranteed to the petitioner under Articles 14, 21, and 21-A of the Constitution as well as under the provisions of Delhi School Education Act, 1973 and Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

The petitioner, a UKG student who is represented by lawyer Ashok Agarwal, has claimed that KVS suddenly changed the admission criteria for class 1 to six years by uploading the guidelines for admission to Kendriya Vidyalayas on its portal just four days before the admission process started last month.