Nursery admission in Delhi: Plea filed against scrapping of management quota

New Delhi: A plea was filed in the Delhi High Court on Friday challenging the AAP government`s decision to scrap the management quota in nursery admissions in the city`s private schools.

The plea filed by the Action Committee Unaided Recognized Private Schools held the government circular was "absolutely without jurisdiction" and should be quashed as it completely takes away the autonomy of schools.

"The order is also liable to be quashed in as much as it completely takes away the autonomy of schools, which is a part of fundamental right of private unaided educational institutions to carry on occupation, guaranteed to them under the constitution," it added.

"About 99 percent of private unaided recognised schools functioning in Delhi are following and have specified absolutely fair, reasonable, just and transparent criterion for admissions in their respective schools," it said.

Announcing the decision on January 6, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said the decision was taken to bring more transparency in the admission process of private schools.

He said the existing provision of 25 percent seats earmarked for students from poor families will remain in place. However, he had added that schools are free to grant admission to the children of their employees and can allocate points in their criteria.

Currently, the schools keep 20 percent or even more seats under the management quota, while 25 percent seats are reserved for EWS students and the rest are open for the general category children.

Delhi`s lt. governor had in December 2013 issued a notification abolishing management quota in nursery admissions but this was challenged by the affected schools.

In November 2014, the high court quashed the admission guidelines issued by the lt. governor and gave autonomy to schools to decide on the criteria as per Ashok Ganguly Committee guidelines. The city government appealed to refer the matter to a larger bench.