TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (2) TMI 213
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....ter which effects the small children who, before seeing the face of the class-room, are seeing the face of the court room and have invoked the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India albeit (through their parents), even before they have learnt the first alphabet. The process of initiation into education should have been a solemn and a joyous affair for those involved, rather it has assumed the colour of a cattle fair or a flea market. The facts of the case are that the wards of the petitioners were in the age group of 3 years and plus and are eligible to seek admission in schools in a class which is described as Pre-Nursery. According to the existing criteria adopted by the schools, a child of 3+ years, is eligible for Pre-Nursery and a child of 5+ is eligible for seeking admission in Class-I. Anneuxre P-2 is the letter written by the District Education Officer, Chandigarh Administration to the Heads of all Government/Government-aided recognized schools in U.T.Chandigarh specifically mentioning that the minimum age to be eligible to get admission to Class I is 5+ years and for Pre-Nursery it is 3+ years. Upon some querries havin....
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....4 to 30.9.05 4-1/2 - 5-1/2 5-1/2 - 6-1/2 3. 2010-11 3-1/2 - 4-1/2 1.10.05 to 30.9.06 4-1/2 - 5-1/2 5-1/2 - 6-1/2 4. 2011-12 as per form 4-5 1.4.06 to 31.3.07 5-6 6 - 7 5. Past practice. 3-1/2 - 4-1/2 1.10.06 to 30.9.07 4-1/2 - 5-1/2 5-1/2 - 6-1/2 No opportunity to 1.4.07 to 30.9.07 children born between this period. CHART 2 S.No. St.John's (Age upto 31st March of year of admission) 1. Session KG(yr) Born between Ist (yrs) 2. 2008-09 4-1/2 - 5-1/2 1.10.02 to 30.9.03 5-1/2 - 6-1/2 2. 2009-10 4-1/2 - 5-1/2 1.10.03 to 30.9.04 5-1/2 - 6-1/2 3. 2010-11 4-1/4 - 5-1/2 1.10.04 to 31.12.05 5-1/4 - 6-1/2 4. 2011-12(as per 5-6 form) 5-6 1.04.06 to 31.3.06 6-7 5. Past practice. 2011-12 4-1/2 - 5/1-2 1.10.05 to 31.12.06 5-1/4 - 6-1/2 No opportunity to children who have been Bor n between this period. CHART 3 S.No. Strawberry Fields World School (age upto 31st March of year of admission) 1. Session KG(YR) Born n between Ist (yrs) 2. 2008-09 4-1/2 - 5-1/2 1.....
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.... for gaining admission to Class I. The cutoff date of 31st March will be of the academic year for which admission will be taken. (iii) While one year class of early childhood education would be offered by all recognized schools immediately prior to Class-I, the schools which have infrastructural facilities may be allowed to open preschool classes for children below the age of four years. However, these pre-schools classes will not be part of main school nor shall these be treated as feeder school to pre-primary class of the school. The children in preschool should be from the immediate neighbourhood. There should be no school bag for carrying any prescribed books in all such pre-school classes. (iv) That the Department of Education will establish a monitoring mechanism in each district to ensure that all recommendations are effectively implemented and that children of pre-school should not get preference over other children for admission in pre-primary class. The Department of Education would law down regulatory mechanism for pre-school education. (v) That the Department of Education will introduce one year pre-primary in all Govt. schools within three years. This....
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....ision, the relevant portion of which has been extracted in the foregoing paragraphs. When the four schools referred to above, implemented this decision, there was huge discontent amongst the parents who were keen to get their children admitted to such schools and the Chandigarh Administration once again reiterated as follows :- "Therefore in view of Section 3(1),4,11 and 15, it will be appropriate if we grant admission in Class-I in the beginning of the academic year to all such children who complete six years of age during the academic year i.e. who are of age 5+ years on Ist April of the academic year because it will enable those students to get admission in class-I, the beginning of the session who become eligible for the same during the session for their smooth completion of school curriculum By fixing the age criteria as mentioned above, all children will be able to complete elementary education by the time he/she completes the age of 14 years. Similarly it will also be appropriate fix 3+ years in the minimum age as on Ist April of the current academic year for admission to Pre- Nursery class. It is also worth mentioning that the above criteria is the same which in vogue....
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....rther that the circular dated 14.1.2011 issued by the Administration had been misinterpreted and the factum of the meeting having taken place with the officials of the Administration with the parents and the Principals of the schools was admitted and the decision taken to resort to the earlier practice was also admitted. No reply has been filed on behalf of the private schools namely Sacred Heart School, Sector 26, Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, St.John School, Sector 26, and St. Anne School, Sector 32, Chandigarh who have been represented by Shri M.L.Sarin, but Shri Amar Vivek, learned counsel appearing for the Strawberry Fields World School, Sector 26, Chandigarh who is also one of the respondents, has filed a reply by way of an affidavit of Ms. Aman Sidhu, Principal, of Strawberry Fields World School, Sector 26, Chandigarh, wherein she has stated that they have no problem, if as a one-time measure, the children who complete 5 years upto 31.12.2011 be considered for admission to UKG/KG and that instead of the cutoff date being April, 2006 to 31.3.2007, they have no difficulty in including the children in the zone of consideration who have been born upto 30.9.2006. Before ....
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....ate can also provide a procedure of holding a common entrance test in the interest of securing fair and merit-based admissions and preventing maladministration. The admission procedure so adopted by a private institution or group of institutions, if it fails to satisfy all or any of the triple tests, indicated hereinabove, can be taken over by the State substituting its own procedure. The second question is answered accordingly. 138. It needs to be specifically stated that having regard to the larger interest and welfare of the student community to promote merit, achieve excellence and curb malpractices, it would be permissible to regulate admissions by providing a centralised and single-window procedure. Such a procedure, to a large extent, can secure grant of meritbased admissions on a transparent basis. Till regulations are framed, the Admission Committees can oversee admissions so as to ensure that merit is not the casualty." He, thus, laid emphasis on the fact that the minority institutions had a legitimate claim and unfettered fundamental right to choose the students to be allowed admission and the procedure governing such admissions. The only condition being that this ....
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.... providing free preschool education for such children. ... ... ... 15. No denial of admission.- A child shall be admitted in a school at the commencement of the academic year or within such extended period as may be prescribed : Provided that no child shall be denied admission if such admission is sought subsequent to the extended period." It is thus, the contention of Shri Sarin that at more than one place, the aforesaid provisions refer to the age of the child as 6 years and keeping in view the provisions of the Act, the criteria so adopted by the schools has enabled them to meet the requirements and objectives of the Act. Upon due consideration of the matter, I proceed to determine the issue at hand. The grievance of the petitioners is the abrupt change of criteria resorted to by the four private schools of U.T.Chandigarh which, according to them, has not only resulted in different practices being followed by the schools in Chandigarh, but has also resulted in exclusion of their children from the zone of consideration for the current year and by providing an upper limit of cutoff date i.e. from 1.4.2006 to 31.3.2007. The children born between 1.4.2006 to 31.12.....
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....age of 3 years for elementary education and to provide early childhood care and education for all children upto the age of 6 years. A perusal of the provisions of the Act coupled with the objectives which the Act contemplates, prompts the Court to conclude that the said Act neither inhibits, nor fetters or prescribes a minimum or a maximum age group for the purpose of admission in a particular class. The provisions of the Act are aimed at the deprived sections and the disadvantaged children and to provide them the opportunity to have education, elementary as well as higher. It is with this purpose in view that the age of a child has been defined from 6 to 14 years and any such unprivileged child who has been deprived of the education in the early years, can still acquire his education by joining any class appropriate to his age and in which eventuality, such a child would be provided with a supportive special training which may act as a scaffolding to such an endeavour, but to say that it is necessarily prescribed by the statute that since a child has been defined to be of 6 to 14 years, therefore, when he reaches Class-I, he should be 6 years, is to my mind, providing a fiction....
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....h of salt. The details of the communication which the officials have exchanged with the schools, establishes shadow boxing by them. If the Administration had nothing to say in this matter then, why were the school managements rushing to them for clarification and why was the Administration sermonising them? But in any case, if the matter had come to them, they should have attempted to have a uniform Policy, rather than issue a directive in the garb of a clarification and then leave the schools holding the baby and fend for themselves when hue and cry erupted. It was thus imperative for them to evolve a mechanism at that point of time and even if the procedure had to be changed according to the interpretation that they had arrived at regarding the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 some uniform transitional mechanism should have been evolved and adopted by them. Instead all Govt. schools which were directly under the control of the Administration were permitted to admit children as per previous policy or was it the case that RTE was applicable only to private schools and not to Govt. schools. The stand of the Administration thus is illo....
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.... groups competing with each other. (3) All the four schools namely Sacred Heart School, Sector 26, Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, St.John School, Sector 26, and St.Anne School, Sector 32, Chandigarh would, as a one time measure, consider the cases of all the children who are born upto 30.9.2006. (4) Schools may issue a communique about the directions given in this judgment which shall be sufficient notice to the desirous parents with no further publication of a notice. (5) The schools need not give any separate notice for this purpose. However, they shall display it on their notice-boards. (6) As per the norms set up by the Chandigarh Administration, the schools shall also be entitled to charge fee of Rs.100/- on the admission form given out by them. If the forms are available on the website of the schools, the same be downloaded by the parents and submitted to the school along with fee of Rs.100/-. (7) The forms shall be accepted by the 20th of February, 2011. Each school is thereafter free to fix the date for admission. The forms shall be scrutinised by the schools in another three days after receipt and thereafter a date shall be fixed for holding draw....