Reserve 25% seats for poor children: Gujarat HC

In order to provide equal opportunity for the poor children to get themselves educated, the Gujarat High Court has asked the state government to reserve 25 percent of the seats in the government schools for the underprivileged under the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

The high court took the decision after taking cognizance of a petition alleging that 25 percent seats in the new primary schools granted recognition in the month of May/ June, 2017 have not been offered for admission under the RTE Act.

In its defense, the State government informed the court that the process of admission of students under the RTE Act was initiated in the month of February and hence, new schools could not be included in its purview.

“We assure the court that from the next academic year, the approval to new schools shall be granted on or before applications are invited from admissions through RTE Act,” the State government had said.

After hearing the arguments from both sides, the court concluded, “The State Government is hereby directed to see that 25 percent of those newly recognized schools also shall be offered for admission to the children of weaker sections and disadvantaged groups under the RTE Act and all those children of weaker sections and disadvantaged groups who could not get the admission in the first round of admission and are left out, may be granted the admissions under the RTE Act out of 25 percent of the seats of such schools which are granted recognition subsequently, subsequent to first date of advertisement inviting the applications, so that more and more children of weaker sections and disadvantaged groups may get the admission under the RTE Act and the real object and purpose of RTE Act is achieved. The aforesaid direction shall be implemented from the academic year 2018-19 onwards.”