Supreme Court Today (Aug 6) directed all Indian States to allow orphan children free private school education under the 25% RTE quota. The Court gave a 4-week deadline and asked States to survey orphan admissions.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India has given a very important order for the benefit of orphan children across the country. On Wednesday, the top court said that all State governments must issue proper notifications so that orphaned children can get free education in private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, specifically under the 25% quota for children from weaker and disadvantaged sections.
A Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice KV Viswanathan gave this direction after noticing that some States like Delhi, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Gujarat have already taken steps and issued such notifications.
So now, the Supreme Court has clearly ordered all the remaining States to do the same within four weeks.
The Court said:
“Delhi, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujrat… has already issued notification to include orphans within the definition of section 12(1)(c) of RTE Act, other states shall also issue the same notification. Such exercise shall be completed within 4 weeks.”
Along with this order, the Court has also asked every State to carry out a proper survey. This survey will check which orphan children have been given admission in schools and which ones have been denied.
The survey should also record the reasons why admission was denied, if any.
The Court also mentioned the need for quick action and said:
“While this survey is done, simultaneous efforts should be made so that such (orphan) children should be admitted to schools.”
These directions were given during the hearing of a petition filed by Advocate Poulomi Pavini Shukla.
In her plea, she had asked the Court to issue directions for a uniform education system for orphan children, and to ensure reservation and a national survey to count orphan children in India.
While presenting the case, Advocate Shukla told the Court that India does not have any official data on orphan children. She pointed out that the lack of data shows how this vulnerable group has been ignored by the system.
She said that the only data available is from NGOs and international organisations like UNICEF. According to UNICEF’s report, there are around 2.96 crore (29.6 million) orphan children in India.
The Supreme Court, after looking at the facts and arguments, said that this matter is serious and needs proper consideration.
That is why the Court issued important directions to all States to take immediate action and protect the rights of orphaned children.
CASE TITLE:
Poulomi Pavini Shukla vs. Union Of India And Ors.
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