New Delhi: In a big relief to the private schools in Delhi, the High Court today upheld Ganguly committee recommendations on nursery admissions and quashed the guidelines for the same which was issued by the city government last year with respect to general category seats.
The court said that the private unaided schools should have administrative autonomy to decide on admissions.
“Power to decide school of a child should lie with the parents,” the court observed.
The court pronounced its order on petitions challenging the nursery admission guidelines issued last year.
Justice Manmohan had asked the Delhi government not to issue fresh guidelines till the court passes its final order over the petitions pending before it which challenged the guidelines.
In the first week of November, the Lt. Governor was expected to issue new guidelines with changes in the earlier ones.
The judgment will effect the admission process of the 2015-16 academic year.
The Lt. Governor had Dec 18 last year issued guidelines after which a bunch of petitions were filed against them. The guidelines outlined many criteria, including the neighbourhood factor, which sought that schools give preference to children living within a radius of six km from the school.
This criterion was given the maximum weightage of 70 points out of 100 in open category seats.
Later, the Lt. Governor enhanced the distance factor to eight km.
Other criteria in the guidelines were: siblings studying in the same school (20 points), applications of girls (five points), and wards of school alumni (five points).
