The Delhi High Court Wednesday stayed a Delhi government order reserving
20 percent seats in St. Columba's school for students belonging to the
economically weaker sections.
Justice Manmohan passed an
interim order staying the government notification, which he said "has
been passed without application of mind".
St. Columba's moved
the high court challenging the Dec 18 notification of Lt. Governor
Najeeb Jung, saying the Supreme Court had excluded minority schools
from the ambit of Right to Education Act.
The apex court held
April 12, 2012 that the act would not apply to unaided minority schools
and imposing a quota for children from poor families on such schools
violated article 30 of the constitution.
Jung is an alumnus of St. Columba's.
On
Dec 18, Jung ordered all the schools in Delhi, including minority
schools, which got land from the government, to also admit 20 percent
children from the weaker sections in the neighbourhood.
Delhi
government counsel Zubeda Begum told the court that in 1966, land was
given to the school on concessional basis so that they kept 20 percent
of their seats to the economically weaker sections.
The
association of unaided private schools has also moved the high court
challenging the Delhi government notification. It has called the order
"absolutely illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction".