The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked a top Delhi government official to appear before it over non- implementation of its order on issuance of a circular to 15 schools to keep aside at least two nursery seats each in the present academic session for children with special needs.
Seeking the presence of the Principal Secretary of Education, a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Vibhu Bakhru also issued notice to the Delhi government for its response on a contempt plea alleging "wilful and deliberate omission" on its part for not complying with the court's May 7 order.
The bench also brushed aside the government's contention that guidelines cannot be modified during the admission process, saying it had ordered only what has been mandated under the Persons With Disability Act.
"Let the Principal Secretary, Education be here on next date," the court said and listed the matter for further hearing on May 16. The order was passed on the petition of Pramod Arora, father of a child with special needs.
The contempt plea filed through senior advocate Kirti Uppal and advocate Anshumaan Sahni has alleged that despite the court's May 7 order, the government till date has not issued any circular.
The bench on May 7 had ordered the city government to issue the circular within 24 hours to the 15 private schools.
The order had been passed after the Directorate of Education (DoE) had filed a status report saying that pursuant to its inspection, it has been found that 18 out of the 44 schools mentioned in the main petition have the facility to cater to children with special needs (CWSN) while 19 others lacked the same.
It had also submitted that it is yet to inspect eight other schools to ascertain as to whether they can handle such children or not. The petitioner had also submitted a list of seven other schools which can handle CWSN.
Taking note of the list of schools, the court had asked the DoE to issue a circular to the 15 schools to keep aside at least 2 seats for CWSN.
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