HC: Delhi govt can give cash to EWS students to buy school uniform

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld the city government’s decision to provide cash directly to private schools students under the Economically Weaker Section and disadvantaged group categories for buying their uniforms, observing the authorities will face “genuine” difficulties in processing individual orders for every student.

While modifying its previous direction to the authorities to provide actual uniforms, the court ruled that the government’s decision to give a subsidy through ‘Direct Benefit Transfer’ was not contrary to the mandate of the Right To Education (RTE) Act. The court further observed that this method would ensure students receive their uniform on time.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Subramonium Prasad, asked the Delhi government to ensure that an adequate amount was provided to the students “well within time and at the earliest”.

“Undoubtedly, it would be impossible to carry-out the exercise of taking measurements of every student, placing orders for different kinds of uniform cloth on the GeM portal, after procurement of the material getting the uniforms stitched as per the measurements and finally distributing the uniforms in schools before the commencement of a new session,” the bench said.

“The decision taken by the government to provide money to the students directly so that they can buy the uniforms would ensure that the uniforms are available to the students in time,” the bench said.