Court asks NDMC to explain school admission policy
By IANSFriday, March 26, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Friday asked the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) why 12 students were denied admission to its school, as their parents have claimed, after a delimitation exercise removed their residential areas from New Delhi parliamentary constituency.
Justice G.S. Sistani issued a notice to the NDMC, the Navyug Education Society, the Delhi government and the central government asking them to file their replies by April 19.
In their petition filed through advocate Ashok Agarwal, the parents said that the delimitation of the constituency was not their choice and fault, and therefore their children should not be made to suffer on this ground.
“The new policy of NDMC’s Navyug Education Society to deny admissions to children residing in Mata Sundri Road and Minto Road is based on the ground that these areas have been excluded from the New Delhi parliamentary constituency as a result of delimitation.”
“The right to education is a fundamental right of every child and the NDMC has no authority in law to deny admission to the wards of the petitioners on the ground that they no longer reside in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency,” Agarwal argued.
The parents submitted that till academic year 2008-09, their children were considered for admission in the NDMC school. “Children who were admitted prior to the academic year 2008-09 are continuing in the same school,” the petition said.
From academic year 2009-10, however, the petitioners said, their children were denied admission on the ground that they were residing in colonies which fall outside the New Delhi parliamentary constituency.
The petition said the resident criteria for admission was totally arbitrary and discriminatory as children of NDMC employees, living in the same areas, have been admitted to the NDMC school.
