New Delhi:
Declaring that the Right to Education is constitutionally valid, the Supreme Court today said the Right to Education will apply to all schools controlled by the government or local bodies.
The top court said it will be applicable to all aided, private and minority schools who are getting grants from the government. For the schools not getting government grants (unaided), it will apply to private schools but not to minority institutions.
The Supreme Court was pronouncing its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the right to education law that requires private schools to earmark 25 per cent seats for economically weaker students. The admission for weaker communities will be at the entry level - either first standard or nursery.
The judgment, reserved on August 3, 2011 after a prolonged hearing, was pronounced by a bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice K.S.P. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar.
A batch of petitions by Society for Unaided Private Schools, Independent Schools Federation of India and others had contested the provision in the law under which they had to reserve 25 per cent seats for economically weaker sections in their schools.
The schools contended that the reservation of 25 per cent seats for the children from vulnerable sections of society violated their right to run educational institution without the state's interference.
The schools' contention that the reservation for poor students would drain their resources was contested by the government that promised to reimburse the money spent by them of these students.
(With IANS inputs)