HC stays distance criteria for nursery admissions

Putting an end to the confusion over the nursery admission process in the national capital, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the January 7 neighbourhood clause, floated by the Delhi Government, calling the decision a restrictive one.

This means that parents can continue with nursery admissions according to the set criteria of the schools. Since the process for nursery admission has already begun, the court delivered this interim order on a priority basis. The matter will be finally decided in March.

"There is a stark difference between giving preference on the ground of neighbourhood in terms of some extra points and in making fixed/rigid limits of neighbourhood as the sole criteria for admission," said Justice Manmohan.

In what has come to be an annual feature at the high court, with regards to confusion over nursery admission, school associations and parents had challenged the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular, which issued admission guidelines for 298 private schools on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land. The guideline stated that the schools on DDA land "shall not refuse admission to the residents of the locality".

According to the guideline, students residing within one kilometre of the school would be given priority. Preference would be given to those students residing within three kilometres if seats were still available. "Students residing beyond six kilometres shall be admitted only in case vacancies remain unfilled even after considering all the students within the six-kilometre area," the guideline said.

Restricting admissions to the immediate neighbourhood of the school may result in restricting the growth and vision of the students, the court observed in its 58-page order. "If students from all faiths, communities and different parts of Delhi are admitted in a school, it would promote diversity, openness, liberalism and greater understanding of the city and its culture," the court said.

This criteria denied a child, through his/her parents, the fundamental right to be considered for admission in a school of choice.

The court observed that there is a possibility of this clause also getting misused. "Many rich parents would either shift to areas which are close to the school they want their children to study or would get sham rent receipts/documents," Justice Manmohan said.

The HC judgment was received with mixed emotions by the parties concerned. While some were happy over the neighbourhood criteria getting quashed, others expressed concern over the management quota being brought in.

However, the court lamented that the January notification did not deal with the problem of lack of seats in any manner whatsoever. "The primary cause of the nursery admission chaos is lack of adequate number of good quality public schools and uneven distribution of good private unaided schools in Delhi. Till the quality of all public schools improves, the disparity between demand and supply will remain," Justice Manmohan said in his order.

"It is a bitter-sweet decision. It would benefit parents who do not have any good school in their vicinity. But the schools now will start selling seats under the management quota," said a parent from Vasant Kunj, who is seeking admission for his daughter.

"The Delhi government should have brought in the guidelines earlier. It would have helped avoid confusion during the admission process. It is really unfair for the parents as the schools will now have management quota. The schools charge high fees despite availing subsidy for operating on the DDA land," said Ranjan Arora, a resident of Keshavpuram.

"We welcome the decision. There was a lot of uncertainty over the admissions. But now the admission process would be taken forward as per the earlier norms. The parents would now get the right to select the best school for their wards," said Ashok Pandey, Principal, Ahlcon International School.