Minority schools sans NOC not exempt from RTE: Gujarat High Court

A division bench of the Gujarat high court headed by justice MR Shah on Monday said that only those minority schools that had taken the requisite No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the concerned authorities were exempted from admitting students under the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

The court also asked the state to ensure that students, who were left out of admission under RTE, are considered. This could pave the way for second round of admission under RTE.

The court's order came in connection with several petitions related to RTE. One involved minority schools moving the court on the grounds that their minority status exempted them from RTE while another petition had sought direction to the state government to begin second round of admission under RTE as over 40,000 students were yet to get admission.

The court, in its order, said article 30 allowed for religious minorities and linguistic minorities to establish minority institution of choice. "As per an SC ruling they are exempted from RTE but such institutions need to get NOC from the competent authorities. They cannot automatically claim minority status," the court observed.

It said that the DEO's order directing the minority schools to admit students under RTE was not illegal and arbitrary.

It also directed the state to ensure that the students who were yet to be admitted under RTE were given admission as per their choice of schools but subject to the 25% limit for each school. The court also asked the government to consider those RTE applications that were rejected on technical grounds.

Meanwhile, some of the schools sought continuation of the interim order — which prevented the state from carrying out penal action against schools that had refused admission to students under RTE — so that they can appeal the matter in the Supreme Court. The high court granted them time of a fortnight.

The state had opposed the move on the grounds that over 1,000 children, who were given admission to minority schools, were still waiting to be admitted and they had already lost two precious months and granting a stay would only further the waiting period.

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