Constitution bench to hear plea against education law

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Monday referred to a five-judge constitution bench petitions challenging the right to education law on the ground that it violates constitutional provisions safeguarding the rights of the minorities and unaided schools.

The petitioner minority institutions said that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, is contrary to provisions of Article 14, 21A, 30 and 45 of the constitution in respect of the rights of the unaided private educational institution including the minority institutions.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar passed the order after counsel for the petitioners said that there were many provision in the act that infringed the rights of the private and minority educational institution.

The court was told that the act provides for 25 percent reservation for weaker and disadvantaged groups which was at variance with the apex court constitution bench judgment on the issue.

Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the court that the petitioner institutions have raised some valid points that needed to be looked into.

The court was also told that right to education law provides for the reimbursement of the expenditure incurred on imparting education to students from weaker and disadvantageous section under the 25 percent reservation category.

However, the gap between what the state would reimburse and the expenditure that an institution would incur on such students would be huge, the petitioners said.

The petitioner said that the act prohibits minority institutions from carrying out any screening test of either the students or their parents.

The court was told that this provision of the right to education law infringed upon the right of the educational institutions to adopt their own admission policy.

The petitioner institutions also objected to the provision in the law that poor students should be admitted without verifying their age.