The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to respond to Tamil Nadu’s plea challenging a Madras High Court order directing the State to reimburse private schools Rs 314.98 crore for EWS quota admissions. The State argues that the Union has not released its share of RTE funds since 2021.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Central government to reply to a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging a Madras High Court order. The High Court had directed the State to reimburse private schools under the Right to Education Act (RTE Act) for admitting students from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), even though the Union government has not released its share of the funds.
A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued notice on the State’s plea and said the matter will next be heard on September 29.
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The Court said,
“Issue notice returnable within four weeks.”
The controversy began after the Madras High Court’s ruling on June 10. The High Court held that the Tamil Nadu government cannot avoid its statutory duty under Section 12(2) of the RTE Act by claiming that it has not received money from the Centre.
It directed the State to release Rs 314.98 crore to private schools as reimbursement for EWS admissions.
Senior Advocate P. Wilson, representing the Tamil Nadu government, argued that the RTE Act puts a joint responsibility on both the Union and State governments to provide funds for implementing the Act.
He told the Court that Section 7 of the RTE Act makes this very clear, since both governments are required to contribute their share to ensure the law is carried out effectively.
He further pointed out that the Central government has not released its share of funds since 2021. This, he argued, has placed an extra burden on the State’s finances and made it very difficult for Tamil Nadu to pay private schools that have admitted students under the EWS quota.
In its petition, the Tamil Nadu government argued that the Madras High Court went beyond the scope of the original writ petition, which only related to the admission process under the RTE Act, and gave directions on an issue that was never raised before it.
The State also explained that while Section 12(2) of the RTE Act, 2009 along with Rule 9 of the Tamil Nadu RTE Rules, 2011 requires the State to reimburse private schools for costs incurred under Section 12(1)(c), this obligation cannot be looked at separately.
According to Tamil Nadu, this responsibility is linked with the Central government’s duties under Section 7 of the Act.
The petition said,
“The provisions of Section 12(2) are to be read with Section 7(2), 7(3) and 7(5) of RTE Act for affixing any such responsibility of the State Government. If the Section 12(2) is interpreted to be independent of the functions under Section 7 of the Act, it would lead to absolute absurdity and would make the Sections 7(1) and 7(3) of the Act unenforceable and nugatory.”
The plea was filed through Advocate Sabarish Subramanian.
Case Title:
Government of Tamil Nadu vs. V. Eswaran.
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