All RTE petitions should be heard by one court, says Gujarat High Court

A division bench of Gujarat High Court headed by justice MR Shah on Wednesday observed that all petitions related to Right to Education should be heard by one single court. The court observed that this would prevent conflicting judgements on RTE.

The court was hearing two petitions related to RTE, one about the inability of the government to start a second round of admissions and another, a PIL that sought to put in public domain the minority status of all schools.

The government pleader told the court that they would move a petition before the chief justice seeking that all RTE matters be heard by a single court.

Meanwhile, hearing a petition that sought directions to the state on the second round of RTE admissions that have been put on hold due to a petition moved by minority schools in the state, the bench sought to know from the State why it had rejected the application of 3,170 students under RTE.

To the State's reply that they had given additional time for the rejected applicants to provide the necessary documents, the court observed that as the future of poor students was at stake, the government should not rely on technicalities alone while rejecting such applications.

The State sought some more time from the court to file its reply on reasons why the 3,170 applications were rejected.