New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday restored the management quota in nursery admissions in the national capital’s private unaided schools, saying the Aam Aadmi Party government’s order to scrap it was “without the authority of law”.
A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath dismissed an appeal filed by the Delhi government against the single-bench order that stayed the government’s January 6 decision on scrapping the quota.
Justifying High Court Justice Manmohan’s order in the case, the high court bench said: ” ….the January 6 order undoubtedly amounts to exercising the power conferred on the lt. governor under section 3(1) read with section 2(a) of the Delhi School Education Act and the rules made thereunder.”
“The same being impermissible under law, the single judge was right in holding that the said order was without authority.”
The bench agreed with the single-judge bench that the order was “mere executive/administrative order” and “cannot take the place of a law made by the legislature”.
“The single judge is justified in arriving at a prima facie conclusion that the order dated January 6 issued by the Directorate of Education (DoE) is without authority of law. Consequently, the order has been rightly stayed by the single judge.”
The government had argued that the practice of granting admissions under the management quota was “non-transparent and opaque”, adding that the intention behind the notification was to “prevent maladministration”.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on January 6 said the decision to scrap the management quota was taken to bring in more transparency in the admission process, while retaining the provision of 25 percent seats for students from poor families.
Currently, schools keep 20 percent of seats, or even more, under the management quota, while 25 percent seats are reserved for students from the economically weaker sections. The remaining seats are open for the general category.