The petitions, by some parents and two school groups, have

challenged two circulars of December 19, 2016 and January 7, 2017 which enforced an allotment clause and thereby restricted admission in schools on DDA land to their locality.

The two school groups -- Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools and the Forum for Promotion of Quality Education -- and the parents have contended that the two circulars are bad in law and curtailed their fundamental rights.

298 private unaided schools on DDA land were affected by the nursery admission guidelines which state that such institutes "shall not refuse admission to the residents of the locality".

The court, however, by way of an interim order had allowed the parents to fill up the application forms for the various schools based on the criteria set by them as well as the Delhi government.

Later, it had also stayed the government's notification asking private minority unaided schools to accept nursery admission forms using neighbourhood criteria.

Defining what neighbourhood would mean, the guidelines under challenge say that students residing within one km of the school will be preferred and if seats are not filled, preference will be given to students residing within 1-3 kms of the school.

"Students residing beyond 6 kms shall be admitted only in case vacancies remain unfilled even after considering all the students within 6 km area," as per the guidelines.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)