AMN
The Delhi High Court Tuesday stayed the Delhi government’s new nursery admission norms based on the neighbourhood criteria, saying they were arbitrary and discriminatory. The court said, the interim stay on the 7th January notification would remain in place till final disposal of the pleas challenging the Delhi government’s order to private unaided schools to accept nursery admission forms based only on the neighbourhood or distance criteria.
The petitions have been filed by parents and two school groups challenging the Delhi government’s 19th December and January 7th notifications that made 298 private schools, built on Delhi Development Authority land, to accept nursery admission forms based only on the neighbourhood or distance norm.
While staying the notification, the court said the Directorate of Education of the government cannot do indirectly what it cannot do directly. The court had earlier put on hold the effect of this notification with regard to minority schools in the national capital. It also said that there was lack of good quality government schools in Delhi because of which the neighbourhood criteria cannot be properly implemented.