CHENNAI: The Madras High Court ordered the school education department to accommodate students of 36 kindergarten A-schools in the city - which have been shut as the management did not have government recognition to run them - in recognised neighbourhood CBSE schools.
Acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court Satish K Agnihotri and Justice M Sathyanarayanan after hearing writ petitions filed by the parents, ordered that the children who have studied in Chettinad Foundation A-Schools be accommodated in other CBSE schools.
The court also directed Chettinad Foundation to issue transfer certificates to all the children admitted in A-Schools.
It directed the management of Chettinad Foundation as well as founder of the A-School Annamalai Chettiar to pay ‘jointly and severally’ `15,000 to the parents of the students admitted in A-schools as interim compensation within four weeks from the date of receipt of copy of the order and without prejudice to their rights and contentions.
The judges also stated that the parents were at liberty to approach the competent forum for getting refund of the fee as well as claiming further compensation.
The order was passed after 13 parents, including P Giridharan and J Sunderrajan, filed two writ petitions to direct the School Education Department to accommodate their children studying in A-Schools in some other recognised CBSE institutions.
In the counter affidavit filed by the Deputy Secretary, Government School Education Department, it was mentioned that the schools were established by the management without prior permission or recognition or affiliation from the authorities of the State or the CBSE.
As per the circular issued by CBSE dated July 8, 2013, the amended rules 3(3)(1) stipulate that the school seeking provisional affiliation with the Board must have formal prior recognition of the State and also produce evidence to that effect that the applicant school had intimated to the concerned Education Department of the State about the application made to CBSE for seeking affiliation.