New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday has given private schools in the Capital a "last and final" opportunity to evolve a mechanism for admitting toddlers to nursery classes without interviewing them and their parents.
Delhi schools have got four weeks time (till January 31, 2006) to come up with an alternative system for admissions.
The harassment that parents faced with nursery admissions had come to court's notice when three aggrieved parents, fed up with the arbitrary way in which nursery admissions were being conducted in Delhi, filed a case.
At the hearing on Monday, the Progressive School Union had asked the court for some more time to prepare their case. It also asked the court to set up a panel to frame guidelines for nursery admissions.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma made it clear that private schools should not be allowed the discretion to call a particular set of children for interviews.
It asked schools to "put an end" to the practice of issuing interview cards to parents at their own will.
The Division Bench has warned the Progressive School Union that if an alternative system were not in place in the next four weeks, it would ban admission interviews for toddlers from January.
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The parents' counsel, Ashok Aggarwal, had pointed out that the central government-appointed Yashpal Committee had recommended a complete ban on interviewing children as it was "arbitrary".
He said that interviews violated children's fundamental rights as guaranteed under Article 14 (Right to equality), Article 21 (Right to life and liberty) and Article 21A (Right to education for children below 14).
Aggarwal added that the practice also violated the provisions of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973.
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