Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has held that minority educational institutions cannot admit students under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act)'s 25% quota for economically and socially disadvantaged children, even if they choose to do so voluntarily.
The Aurangabad bench of the HC stated that permitting such admission would be violative of the constitutional protections that exempt minority educational institutions from tha mandate of the RTE Act.
The HC was hearing petitions filed by Izak English Medium School and Anand Medical and Education Foundation, which are minority-run English-medium schools in Ahmednagar. They had challenged the government circular dated March 15, 2013, excluding minority schools from admitting students in the RTE quota.
Advocates for the schools submitted that the school should be permitted to admit students under the 25% quota as a voluntary gesture. They also sought reimbursement from the State government for these students for the previous years.
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The court, however, dismissed the argument stating that by admitting students under the RTE, these institutions would violate their constitutional rights under Article 30(1). The Article states that all minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
‘Once the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court has held the RTE Act itself being ultra vires Article 30(1) of the Constitution, this Court… cannot permit the minority institutes like the petitioners to subject themselves to the provisions of the RTE Act. Even if they (minority institutions) are ready and willing,,,” a bench of Justices Mangesh Patil and Shailesh Brahme said on August 14. The bench added that allowing the institutions to do so would amount to making RTE applicable to them.
Further, the RTE Act “expressly excludes” aided or unaided minority schools, Madrasas, Vedic Pathshalas and Educational Institutions primarily imparting religious instruction, the court underlined.
The court while dismissing the petition, said that admittedly Izak English Medium School had previously admitted students under the RTE quota and had not been reimbursed for the academic years 2017-18 to 2019-20. It has directed the government to undertake scrutiny of the claim and reimburse the school within six weeks.
