Supreme Court admits writ petition against right to education act

Supreme Court on Friday admitted a writ petition filed by state’s Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) schools to amend certain clauses in the Right to Education (RTE) Act before its implementation.

The petition was filed under the aegis of Karnataka's Management of Independent CBSE Schools Association (KMICSA).

After hearing the petition, a division bench comprising  justices RV Raveendran and HL Gokhale directed the solicitor general to file an appropriate reply on the matter, and the bench also instructed the case to be tagged along with other similar cases which are pending in the court. The petition will now be heard by a constitutional bench of five judges.

“It is a huge relief for us. We approached the apex court as the state government had turned a deaf ear to our requests.  Our petition is not against the act as such. We want some necessary changes to be made to a few clauses of it,” said Mansoor Ali Khan, general secretary, KMICSA.

 “We are not against the 25% reservation for the underprivileged children in the act. But we feel that the government has the main responsibility in ensuring fundamental rights of its citizens like right to education. The role of private schools in providing education is well established in the act. However, it does not clearly mention about the role of the government or government schools,” he said.

“We would like to know what the government is doing to upgrade the facilities like infrastructure in its schools which constitute nearly 93% of the schools in the country,” he added.