NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court recently sought response from the Central and state governments on whether an orphan child can be included in the 25 per cent quota provided by schools to “child belonging to disadvantaged groups” in accordance with the provision under the Right to Education Act, 2009.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra also asked if the benefits under the Prime Minister’s Cares Fund being provided to children orphaned during the Covid- 19 pandemic could be extended to other orphans as well.
“You have brought out a policy rightly for Covid orphans, now you must extend it to everybody. An orphan is an orphan, irrespective of whether the parents died in a road accident or due to an illness… You are attending to the condition, not to the parentage,” the CJI said.
“We direct the Union of India to take and consider this aspect as well when it responds. All the state governments shall also file their affidavits on the above aspect,” the bench said.