Kapil Sibal expresses happiness over SC verdict on RTE

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday expressed happiness at the Supreme Court verdict upholding the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act of 2009 saying it has brought clarity and put all controversies to rest.

Sibal said litigation in court should never be looked as a victory or defeat, especially when the government is involved because what government was looking for from this litigation was clarity because it has an impact on millions of people.

"What the court has given us today is clarity on the issue so that all controversies are set to rest. When the controversies are set to rest, our vision of education moves forward. So we are very happy that all controversies are set to rest and there is a clarity," Sibal said.

On the Apex court agreeing with the provision of 25% free seats to the poor in government and private unaided schools uniformly across the country, the Minister said it was one the biggest issues involved in the matter.

"One of the biggest issues involved was 25% reservation applies to private schools or not which is also upheld by SC and it also does not apply to minority institutions. That controversy is also set to rest," he said.

By a majority view, a three-judge bench of Chief Justice SH Kapadia and Justices KS Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar said the RTE act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private schools except unaided private minority schools.

However, in his dissenting opinion, Justice Radhakrishnan took the view that the act would not apply to both unaided private schools as also minority institutions which do not receive any aid or grant from the government.