High Court asks Delhi govt to try to clear backlog of unfilled EWS seats in private schools

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has asked the Delhi government to endeavour to clear the backlog of unfilled EWS seats in private schools in the next five years. It also said the state has to step in to aid EWS category students in cases where schools have not complied with the requirements of admissions. A bench of Justices Najmi Waziri and Vikas Mahajan said the state shall ensure that the 25 percent seats in the EWS category be filled up on the basis of declared sanctioned strength at the entry-level -- pre-school, nursery, pre-primary, KG and Class 1 -- irrespective of the actual number of students admitted in the general category.

“In instances where schools have not complied with the strict requirements of admission of EWS category students, the state has to step-in to the aid of the latter and exercise its duty as a welfare state. No beneficiary of government land can overlook or avoid its obligation under the allotment", the bench said. “In the circumstances, every endeavour shall be made by the state to ensure that the backlog of unfilled seats in private schools, both on private and government lands, is filled up in the next five years in a phased manner, that is, 20 per cent of the vacancies each year, in addition to the mandated annual 25 per cent intake,” it said.

Delhi government's standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi and advocate Arun Tanwar submitted that 132 private schools have prima facie been found to be violating the government’s direction on admission of students in the EWS category and notices have been issued to them. He said seats in the EWS category are to be filled to the fullest at the ‘entry level’ but some schools had not been admitting EWS students for the last decade or so. Under the EWS category, the court’s May 26 order noted, private schools on private land have to admit 25 percent of students in the EWS category for which the repayment of fees is done on the basis of expenses incurred for a student of a government school.

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Private schools on government land have to admit 25 percent of EWS category students at the entry level. However, reimbursement by the Delhi government is to be done for only 5 percent of students in this category. Education expenses for the remaining 20 percent of EWS candidates are the obligation of the private schools themselves because of the condition for allotment of government land, the court order noted. The court asked the Delhi government to file a compliance affidavit before the next date and listed the matter for further proceedings on August 4.

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The division bench was hearing an appeal by the NGO Justice For All, represented through advocates Khagesh B Jha and Shikha Sharma Bagga, challenging a single judge’s order declaring the last date of admission under EWS category to be December 31. According to the Right to Education Act, the counsel said, there should not be any last date of admission and because of this cut-off date, many admissions of EWS category students have been on hold -- as in routine private schools keep these children waiting despite being selected in a draw of lots.

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