Delhi High Court - Orders
Bal Bhavan Public School vs Directorate Of Education & Anr on 24 June, 2024
Author: Dharmesh Sharma
Bench: Dharmesh Sharma
$~25
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ W.P.(C) 8684/2024
BAL BHAVAN PUBLIC SCHOOL ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr. Sudhir Naagar, Mr. Piyush
Aggarwal, Ms. Vijeta Sharma
and Ms. Vandana Sachdeva,
Advs.
versus
DIRECTORATE OF EDUCATION & ANR...... Respondents
Through: Mr. Santosh Kumar Tripathi,
Standing Counsel (Civil)
GNCTD with MR. Arun
Panwar, Adv. for R-1/DoE with
Mr. Vinit Lakra, ASO, PSB
(DoE)
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DHARMESH SHARMA
ORDER
% 24.06.2024 CM APPL. 35493/2024 (Ex.)
1. Allowed, subject to all just exceptions.
2. The application stands disposed of.
W.P.(C) 8684/2024 and CM APPL. 35492/2024
3. The petitioner is invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, assailing the impugned circular dated 31.05.2024 issued by the Directorate of Education/respondent No.1, whereby they have been called upon to admit 62 students at Entry Level (Pre-School/Nursery) Class under the EWS/DG and CWSN category. Learned counsel for respondent No.1 is present on advance notice. Learned counsel for the respondent This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 25/06/2024 at 21:02:20 requests time to file a short affidavit. Let the same be filed within two weeks from today.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioner has urged that pursuant to the circular dated 17.01.2024 issued by the Directorate of Education, a consolidated Notification was issued thereby providing for status of seats at the „entry level‟, whereby as regards their school, the total seats for the Entry Level Classes were notified to be 244.
5. It is urged that representations have been preferred objecting to the number of seats earmarked by the said notification and inter-alia it was also pointed out that even for the previous Academic Session 2023-2024, the total number of seats for the Entry Level Classes were 200 only.
6. It is submitted that the school is duty bound to allocate and admit 25% of the total seats to the students belonging to the EWS- DG/CWSN category, which would be 50 students. In this regard, the grievance of the petitioner is that the Directorate of Education has notified a list of 62 students to be admitted into the school on an incorrect basis that the school has to admit 243 students, and such decision is arrived at without considering that they don‟t have adequate infrastructure.
7. Learned counsel for respondent No.1 has pointed out that the representation of the petitioner/school was considered and it has been resolved that instead of 244 seats, there would be total 243 seats for such category in the Entry Level Classes for the academic session 2024-2025. It is also pointed out that the decision was uploaded on the MIS Portal of the Directorate of Education (DoE) on 24.04.2024.
8. Learned counsel for the respondent No.1 has drawn the attention of this Court to the decision rendered by this Court in This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 25/06/2024 at 21:02:20 W.P.(C) 6747/2024 titled Apeejay School, Sheikh Sarai v. Directorate of Education dated 10.05.2024 as also the decision of a Coordinate Bench in Rameshwar Jha v. Principal Richmond Global School 298 (2023) DLT 328, whereby on examination of the entire law on the subject and taking into account all relevant circulars issued by the DoE, the following directions were issued:-
"c. Any exemption/waiver if required by the schools under the provisions of the RTE Act, in the most exceptional and unforeseen circumstances, can be availed by making such request to the DoE as per the scheme as delineated below:
i. The Application must be made within one week of recommendation and the notification of admission of a particular student under the „weaker section‟ quota to the neighbourhood school.
ii. The said Application must state the reasons and circumstances under which the limited liberty or onetime limited exemption is being sought, or in any format as the DoE may deem fit including other details therein in addition to the reasons for the request. iii. Upon receiving the said Application, the DoE shall give an opportunity of hearing to the concerned school within a week and decide the said application within a week thereafter, upon ascertaining that the prayers and reasons asserted therein are bona fide and stand the test of most exceptional circumstances and accordingly to its satisfaction, if deemed fit, grant a one- time limited exemption to the concerned school.
iv. It is, however, made clear that no such exemption would be granted at the cost of causing prejudice to the admission of the child and shall only be passed after admitting the child, who would otherwise be aggrieved, to an alternate school that is in the closest neighborhood."
9. Per contra, learned counsel for the petitioner has urged they have not been granted an opportunity for hearing. It is also pointed out that an e-mail was received from the DoE dated 06.06.2024 (Annexure P-10) to the effect that the representation of the School to the circular dated 17.01.2024 was still under consideration before the This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 25/06/2024 at 21:02:21 competent authority. However, despite being under consideration, the DoE issued the list comprising 62 students who are to be admitted by the school.
10. It is stated that the deadline for the admission of students is expiring on 28.06.2024.
11. The matter be placed before the Roster Bench on 08.07.2024.
12. In the meanwhile, the petitioner shall proceed to process the admission of 50 students. However, the petitioner shall keep ready a list of the remaining twelve students, as notified by the DoE and the parents of the 12 remaining students be intimated that the admission of their wards/students concerned shall be subject to the orders passed by this Court.
DHARMESH SHARMA (VACATION JUDGE) JUNE 24, 2024 sp This is a digitally signed order.
The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 25/06/2024 at 21:02:21