Delhi HC pulls up GNCTD for admission criteria in school of excellence
Sep 16, 2020
New Delhi [India], September 16 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Delhi government for allegedly having different criteria for admission in class 11 science stream in school of excellence than all other 900+ government schools and denying admission to the petitioner on "flimsy" ground.
A bench of Justice Jayant Nath, while issuing a notice to the Delhi government, asked it to file its response in the matter within one week and also passed interim orders saying that in case the petitioner wins the case, he would be entitled to consequential reliefs.
The matter is now listed for further hearing before the High Court on October 9.
Advocate Ashok Agarwal, appearing for student Sumit Gupta, argued that the admission criteria requiring a minimum of 51 marks in Hindi and Social Science for admission in class XI science stream in school of excellence are unwarranted, unconstitutional, illogical, arbitrary, discriminatory, and illegal.
Sumit Gupta had moved the High Court challenging the validity of the Delhi government's admission criteria for admission in class 11 science stream in school of excellence.
"When the course is the same, the medium of instructions is the same, question paper is same, examination board is same then how Delhi government can legally lay down different admission criteria one for school of excellence and other for other government schools," asked the petitioner, who is a student of a Delhi government school in Trilokpuri.
The plea said that the Delhi government website did not accept his admission form on the ground that he did not have requisite marks in Hindi subject.
The petitioner also said that the Delhi government runs an unequal and discriminatory type of public-funded schools having different standards of education, quality of teachers, facilities, expenditure per student, admission criteria leading to good quality education to few, and sub-standard education to the mass of students.
Every parent genuinely wants his wards to study in school of excellence but being an exclusive school it only caters to a few hundred students and the rest are left at mercy of God, the plea said.
