By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Monday asked the city government to direct public schools built on subsidised government land to begin the process of admission of 15 percent poor students and also advertise the facility widely in the media.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice M.K. Sarma directed the authorities to submit a list of schools that had been built on land availed of at concession rates.
The public schools should give wide publicity to the 15 percent freeship programme available for poor students in their schools as well as the total number of seats available through newspapers and other media to make the public aware of the facility, the court said.
The school authorities and the education department should also mention in the advertisement that those who had Below Poverty Level cards or income below Rs.100,000 per annum would be eligible for the freeship, the court said asking the Delhi government to file a compliance report by Nov 19.
Advocate Ashok Agrawal appearing for Social Jurist, a group of lawyers, told the court that its order of May 29 had not been implemented by the state government.
The high court had directed public schools built on subsidised government land to reserve at least 15 percent seats for providing free education to students from weaker sections of the society.
The court said about 250 schools that had challenged the October 2006 notification of the Delhi government on the issue would abide by the order from the next academic session.
Some public schools had approached the court on Jan 31 challenging the Delhi government notification asking them to reserve 20 percent seats as recommended by a court appointed committee.
It was scaled down to 15 percent by the court.
“The Director of Education (DoE) will initiate action against the defaulting schools permissible under the Delhi Education Act,” said the bench.
Disobedience of the order would also invite contempt of court proceedings against the governing body of the school, said the order.
The court had said, “Let it be introduced on experimental basis from next year at the entry level.”
The students residing within a 3-km range of the school would be given preference and the DoE is the final authority in deciding the admission, the order said.
“The private unaided schools should provide free education to at least 15 percentage poor students. From next year the schools would have to reserve 15 percent, apart from the admission given to the wards of school employees,” said the bench.
A court-appointed committee had recommended at least 20 percent reservation of seats for poor students in all 361 public schools built on subsidised public land after the Delhi government notified its order.
The government issued the notification after the court directed it to implement the provisions in the lease deeds for the land allotted to schools.