Delhi HC dismisses petition seeking equal treatment of govt, private schools for timings, vacations

New Delhi [India], May 24 : The Delhi High Court dismissed a petition seeking to treat government, government-aided and unaided private recognised schools of Directorate of Education and local bodies equally with regard to timings and summer vacations.
"This Court is also of the view that public interest litigation (PIL) is to be used to advance causes of helpless and poor individuals who do not have the capacity or wherewithal to approach the courts. The salary of teachers and staff of both local bodies and private unaided schools is reasonably good and they have resources to approach the court in the event they are aggrieved by any direction of either the state government or private unaided schools. For the aforesaid reasons, the present petition and application are dismissed," a division bench of justices Manmohan and Sanjeev Narula said on Friday.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Apoorva Kumar, who had sought to espouse the cause of teachers and staff of local and private schools.
The Delhi government counsel told the court that the petitioner has not taken into account statutory rules, namely, Rules 31 and 32 of the Delhi School Education Rules, 1973, which specifically provide that private unaided recognised schools shall specify their own timings, subject to the condition that the total school hours in a year shall not be less than 1000 hours. He further stated that the schools have the flexibility to fix their own calendar.
The court said that it is in agreement with the submission of counsel for the Delhi government that the court cannot pass an order contrary to statutory rules based on a PIL, especially when the validity of the rules has not been challenged.