CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed notice to the State government in response to a Public Interest Litigation seeking a directive to the Department of School Education to set up an online single window system for admissions under the Right to Education Act.
Change India Trust, represented by A Narayanan, moved the PIL submitting that various media reported on April 24 that the Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary, Matriculation, Higher Secondary and CBSE Schools Association had passed a resolution that they would not comply with the RTE Act provisions for the coming academic year.
The RTE Act mandated 25 per cent of seats for children belonging to disadvantaged groups. The school associations passed the resolution as the government had not reimbursed the fees of `150 crore due to them.
Narayanan said that despite the court’s order dated April 16, 2014 directing all schools to issue application forms for admission under RTE from May 3 to 18, the resolution of the school associations was an open defiance and in contempt of the court’s order. The petitioner stated that the resolution would adversely affect students from disadvantaged groups.