The Bombay high court has ruled that unaided minority schools do not fall within the ambit of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Such schools are free to conduct admission processes as per their own set of rules, the court held on Tuesday.

The HC division bench of Justices A S Oka and Revati Mohite-Dere read out the operative part of the judgment while allowing the writ petitions filed by the city-based Bishop’s Education Society, St Mary’s School and Saraswati Vidyalaya Union school.

These schools had challenged Pune zilla parishad (ZP) education officer’s order staying their 2013-14 admissions for not adhering to RTE norms.

“The court has held that the RTE Act is not applicable to religious and linguistic minority institutions if such institutions are unaided,” government pleader S K Shinde, who represented the state, told TOI. “The (petitioner) institutions have been held as unaided minority schools,” he added.

The ZP education officer had stayed the admissions, citing that the schools did not reserve 25% seats for children of weaker and disadvantaged sections of the society as per the RTE provisions.

Source

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Unaided-minority-schools-out-of-RTE-ambit-rules-HC/articleshow/27876223.cms