Plea in Delhi HC challenging Kendriya Vidyalaya Class I admission criteria 2022-23
Mar 01, 2022
New Delhi [India], March 1 : A Plea has been moved in Delhi High Court challenging Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) Class I admission criteria 2022-23 laying down the minimum age of a child to 6 years instead of 5 years.
Petition seeks the Court's intervention and issuance of direction to the respondent Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan to reframe the admission criteria in 2022-23 in accordance with the law.
The plea submitted that prior to the academic year 2022-23, the minimum age of admission for class I in respondent KVS was throughout 5 years as of March 31. It also submitted that the impugned admission criteria of the respondent KVS is arbitrary, discriminatory, unjust, unreasonable, violative of the fundamental right to education of petitioner as guaranteed to her under Articles 14, 21 and 21-A of the Constitution of India read with the provisions of Delhi School Education Act, 1973 and Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
The petitioner is a kid through her father Pawan Kumar submits that as she would be 5 plus age as of March 31, 2022, she was desirous of applying for admission in class I in respondent KVS in the academic year 2022-23. However, on February 24, 2022, all of a sudden respondent KVS has made changes in minimum age criteria for admission in class I from 5 years to 6 years by uploading the impugned guidelines on the portal, just 4 days before the admission process starts.
The petitioner was shocked to find out by the impugned guidelines, that she has been made ineligible to apply for class I in respondent KVS in the academic year 2022-23.
The plea submitted that new guidelines say that "as per the mandate of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, entry age for Class 1 has been revised to 6 plus years with effect of Academic Session 2022-23".
However, the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) has not mandated any such thing. In fact, the NEP 2020 has not made any changes to the age of school-going, children. It has not disturbed the status quo. The change to 6 plus years is an invention of the respondent KVS without any mandate from the NEP 2020 and that too is to the disadvantage of children like the petitioner.
Lawyers Ashok Agarwal and Kumar Utkarsh for the petitioner further states that after seeing the impugned admission criteria 2022-23 of respondent KVS, the petitioner sent a legal notice dated February 27, 2022, to respondents, but no response has been received so far.
