HC: Denying admission under EWS category frustrates right to education

New Delhi: Denial of admission under EWS or Disadvantaged Group category by a school even after allotment by the authorities frustrates and undermines the noble objective of the law on right to education and violates the fundamental rights of children under the Constitution, the Delhi High Court has said. The court’s observation came on a petition by a minor boy who sought a direction to a private school here to give him admission in the Economically Weaker Section (EWS)/

Disadvantaged Group (DG) category.

The school’s objection before the court was that the petitioner’s residence was not within the 0-1 km radius and so he was not eligible for admission. The Delhi government, however, took a contrary stand and said the child was staying in the school’s vicinity. Ruling in favour of the petitioner, Justice Mini Pushkarna accepted the scrutiny carried out by the Department of Education (DOE) with respect to the petitioner’s place of residence and said the noble object of providing good education to the economically downtrodden and bringing them into the mainstream of the society cannot be lost sight of.