Bombay High Court: In a case concerning the pre-primary education rights of a child filed in form of Public Interest Litigation, a Bench comprising of Dr. Manjula Chellur, CJ. and R.M. Borde, J., disposed of the case directing the respondent State authorities to bring a policy into existence by the end of 2017 in consonance with Section 11 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. The Court held that pre-primary education was an essential right of a child.
The petition was filed to protect the pre-primary education rights of a child vis-à-vis Section 11 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. In the State of Maharashtra there were no proper norms or guidelines established by the government to regulate pre-primary education which led to a serious disparity amongst the institutions and also the quality of education given in the pre-primary education institutions. The petitioners questioned the respondent authorities as to why they were not able to bring any procedure or policy with regard to pre-primary education in the State even after having conducted a study tour in other states. They also contended that even if such policy was under active consideration of the authorities, they fail to understand, as to why the respondent needed one year to bring out such policy.
The Court disposed of the petition directing the respondent State authorities to bring a policy into existence by the end of 2017 i.e. on or before 31.12.2017 in consonance with Section 11 of the Right to Education Act, 2009. [Dr. Jagannath v. Union of India, 2017 SCC OnLine Bom 6611, decided on 29.06.2017]
