Delhi High Court- In a writ petition filed for seeking issuance of a writ of mandamus to grant admission to the Petitioner’s daughter belonging to the Disadvantaged Group (DG) in Scheduled Caste (SC) category at the respondent school, the Single Judge Bench of Chandrashekhar Hari Shankar*, J., held that the Petitioner ‘s daughter was entitled for the admission as well as she should be provided all amenities and facilities to which such students are entitled, including school uniform, textbooks and the like.
Background-
The Petitioner applied for admission for his daughter in Nursery/Pre-school in the academic year 2023-2024 to the Directorate of Education (DoE). A computerized draw of lots was conducted by the DoE, which resulted in the Petitioner’s daughter being shortlisted for admission to Nursery/Preschool in the respondent school. However, the Respondent school refused to grant admission to the Petitioner’s daughter.
Analysis-
The Court noted that the Petitioner belonged to the Disadvantaged Group (DG) of Scheduled Caste (SC) category, therefore the Petitioner’s Daughter falls under the ambit of Section 2(e) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (“the RTE Act”). The children within meaning of Section 2(e) of the RTE Act, 2009 were entitled to free, compulsory, and elementary education till its completion as stated under Section 12(c) of the RTE Act, 2009. Further it was noted by the Court that according to Section 2(f) of the RTE Act, 2009 “elementary education” is from class I to class VIII.
The Court was of the view that, the issue in this case is squarely covered by the judgments of this Court in Jai v. Directorate of Education 2024 SCC OnLine Del 2537, Arpit v. Adriel High School 2024 SCC OnLine Del 3152, Deepak Raj v. Principal Apeejay School 2024 SCC OnLine Del 3213, wherein it was uniformly adopted that “short-listing of a student for admission to a particular class in a particular school as an EWS/DG category candidate by DoE created an enforceable right to be admitted in favour of the said student, and that the school cannot refuse to grant admission to the student, unless the school within the stipulated period after uploading of the seat matrix of the school by the DoE on its website, seeking modification in the said seat matrix.”
The Court held that provisional admission should be granted to the Petitioner’s daughter as a DG category student in the respondent school in Nursery/Pre-school in 2023-2024. Apart from that, the candidate would be entitled to progressive promotion to higher classes and to be educated by the respondent school as a DG category student in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act and should also be entitled to all amenities and facilities to which such students are entitled, including school uniform, textbooks etc.
[Rakesh v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi, 2024 SCC OnLine Del 3685, Decided on: 17-05-2024]
*Judgement by: Justice Chandrashekhar Hari Shankar
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For Petitioner: Aayush Agarwala, Bhumika Sharma & Kunj Mehra, Advocates.
For Respondents: Santosh Kumar Tripathi, SC(C); Utkarsh Singh, Advocate for Union of Directorate of Education.
