Delhi High Court refuses to direct private schools to admit children under EWS quota

The Delhi High Court has refused to entertain a plea seeking a direction to an unaided private school to admit two children under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category after taking note of their certificates to this effect.

A vacation bench of Justices Manmohan and Yogesh Khanna said it cannot issue such a direction on a plea of a third person but may entertain a petition of their parents.

The court said it had decided similar cases in past in which large number of parents procured fake EWS certificates to obtain admissions in nursery for their wards.

It said that though its order had gone against the errant parents for procuring fake certificates to get admission, it, however, had persuaded the Directorate of Education (DoE) of Delhi Government to allow the admitted kids to pursue their studies as they were not at fault.

“With great difficulty, we had persuaded the department (DoE) not to cancel their (children with fake EWS certificate) admissions,” the bench said.

The court’s observation came during the hearing of a plea by a young woman seeking a direction to a private unaided school to admit the two kids in nursery on the basis of EWS certificate.

She also told the high court that the parents had sought help of the area MPs and MLAs in this regard, but to no avail.

The bench said that if the parents can approach MPs and MLAs, why can’t they come to the court.

“Let the parents approach this court, we will certainly look into it,” the bench said, adding that the petitioner has “no locus” to argue the matter.

Delhi has close to 1.25 lakh nursery seats up for grabs for around 1.5 lakh applicants. Every school is required to reserve 25 per cent seat for students from the EWS category.

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